Private Equity Firm Carlyle In Talks To Invest $2B In India's Reliance Retail: Report

The Indian retail segment is attracting more attention from institutional investors and big tech companies, and Washington D.C.-based private equity firm Carlyle Group Inc CG is the latest to express interest. 

What Happened: The alternative asset management company is seeking a $2 billion investment opportunity in Reliance Industries Ltd.'s retail subsidiary, according to Indian financial daily Mint.

Carlyle’s $2 billion offer is its first foray in the Indian retail segment; if finalized, it would also be its largest investment in an Indian company, Mint noted.

The deal under discussion reportedly involves both Reliance Retail's e-commerce as well as brick-and-mortar ventures.

Why Does It Matter: Reliance has been in the spotlight for some time. According to a Bloomberg report on Thursday, e-commerce titan Amazon Inc AMZN is in talks to acquire $20 billion worth of stake in the same retail business. Reliance stock price shot up 7% on the Bombay Stock Exchange after the report, but the group dubbed it as "speculative."

Reliance is led by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani and has a market cap of over INR 15.4 trillion (approximately $210 billion).

Silver Lake last week announced a $1 billion investment in Reliance retail for 1.75% stake. Facebook Inc. FB and Alphabet Inc. GOOGL GOOG earlier this year invested in another Reliance subsidiary, Jio Platforms.

Price Action: Carlyle shares closed 0.4% lower at $25.17 on Friday.