Reliance Industries share price rises as RIL set to acquire in Metro AG’s India biz for Rs 2,850 crore

Reliance Industries share price rises as RIL set to acquire in Metro AG’s India biz for Rs 2,850 crore

Reliance Industries’ share price gained 0.5% to Rs 2,604 as RIL’s retail arm Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) to acquire a 100% stake in Metro Cash and Carry for Rs 2,850 crore. The move will help the Mukesh Ambani-led giant to strengthen their position in India’s retail sector. The news comes days after the conglomerate’s retail arm announced the launch of their FMCG brand ‘Independence’.

“Through this acquisition, Reliance Retail gets access to a wide network of METRO India stores located in prime locations across key cities, a large base of registered kiranas and other institutional customers, strong supplier network and some of the global best practices implemented by METRO in India,” Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance said in a statement. The acquisition will bolster Reliance Retail’s physical store presence and footprint, giving them the “ability to better serve consumers and small merchants by leveraging synergies and efficiencies across supply chain networks, technology platforms and sourcing capabilities,” Reliance said in a regulatory filing. Once certain regulatory and other customary closing conditions have been met, the transaction is expected to be complete by March 2023.

Reliance Retail is India’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer, boasting of over 15,000 locations in more than 7,000 cities and the company is also the world’s fastest growing retailer. On Wednesday, RRVL announced a 2% stake sale in Just Dial to achieve minimum public shareholding as all the promoters combined hold 76.98% of the company since regulatory norms do not allow the total promoter holding to exceed 75%.

“With Metro India, we are selling a growing and profitable wholesale business in a very dynamic market at the right time. We are convinced that in Reliance we have found a suitable partner who is willing and able to successfully lead Metro India into the future in this market environment,” said Steffen Greubel, Metro AG CEO.