Silver Lake Co-investors To Invest Additional INR 1,875 Cr In Reliance Retail This latest investment values Reliance Retail at a pre-money equity value of INR 4.285 lakh crore

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and its retail arm Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL), on Wednesday announced that co-investors of Silver Lake will invest an additional INR 1,875 crore into RRVL.

Earlier in September, Silver Lake announced an investment of INR 7,500 crore in RIL's retail arm for a 1.75 per cent stake. The fresh capital brings the aggregate investment by Silver Lake and its co-investors in RRVL to INR 9,375 crore, which will translate into a total 2.13 per cent equity stake in the company.

Also Read: Silver Lake Invests INR 7,500 Crore In Reliance Retail

"Silver Lake and its co-investors are valued partners on our journey to transform Indian Retail for the benefit of all Indians," said Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, commenting on the aggregate investment.

"We are pleased to have their confidence and support, as well as the benefit of their leadership in global technology investing and their valued network of relationships for the retail revolution in India. Silver Lake's additional investment is a strong endorsement of the tremendous potential of Indian retail and the capabilities of Reliance Retail."

This deal marks fourth investment for Reliance Retail from global investors. Apart from Silver Lake, KKR has announced investment of INR 5,550 crore and General Atlantic has announced INR 3,675 crore funding, bringing the total external investments raised by RRVL to INR 18,600 crore so far.

Also Read: General Atlantic to Invest INR 3,675 Cr in Reliance Retail for 0.84% Stake

Reliance Retail Limited, a subsidiary of RRVL, operates the country's largest retail business serving close to 640 million footfalls across its 12,000 stores nationwide.

Reliance Retail said through its New Commerce strategy, it has started a transformational digitalization of small and unorganized merchants and is committed to growing the network to over 20 million of these merchants. This will enable the merchants to use technology tools and an efficient supply chain infrastructure to deliver a superior value proposition to their own customers.

Silver Lake is an American private equity firm and is acknowledged for its large-scale technology investments. Some of its notable investments include Airbnb, Alibaba, Alphabet's Verily and Waymo units, Dell Technologies and Twitter.

"We are delighted to increase our exposure and bring more of our co-investors into this unmatched opportunity," said Egon Durban, co-chief executive officer and managing partner of Silver Lake. "The continued investment momentum over the last few weeks is proof of the compelling vision and business model of Reliance Retail–and underscores the tremendous potential of the transformative New Commerce initiative."

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