Silver Lake Looks To Invest $1B In Indian Behemoth Reliance's Retail Arm: FT

Silver Lake is looking to invest nearly $1 billion in Reliance Retail, a company owned by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd, at a valuation of $57 billion, the Financial Times reported Thursday.

What Happened: The talks are taking place at a time when Reliance Industries is attempting to raise $5.7 billion by selling 10% in new shares, people familiar with the matter told FT.

Ambani’s company is reportedly gearing up to compete with international e-commerce firms such as Walmart Inc WMT, which owns local firm Flipkart, and Amazon.com, Inc AMZN in India’s fast growing online shopping segment.

Why It Matters: The Indian billionaire has raised $20 billion of investments in Jio Platforms from 13 global investors, noted FT.

Silver Lake was a frontrunner in investing in Reliance held companies. It pumped in $748.3 million the company’s telecom arm Jio Platforms in May.

Facebook Inc FB invested $5.7 billion and picked up a 10% stake in Jio around the same time.

In July, it was reported that Amazon was considering acquiring a 10% stake in Reliance Retail and was primarily interested in a “preferred, strategic stake” in the company’s grocery delivery service Jiomart.