General Atlantic Can't Have Enough Of India's Reliance, To Invest Another $500M

Equity firm General Atlantic on Tuesday disclosed it would invest close to $500 million (INR 36.75 billion) in Reliance Industries Ltd's retail venture.

What Happened: On a fully diluted basis, General Atlantic’s investment will represent around 0.84% stake in Reliance Retail. The current $500 million funding is General Atlantic’s second investment in the Indian company. In May, the growth equity firm invested $873 million for a 1.3% stake in Reliance’s telecom subsidiary Jio Platform.

The Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance is shifting focus towards technology and retail consumer business – both online and offline, from the Oil-refining business, according to Bloomberg.  Reliance Retail operates around 12,000 stores across 7,000 towns in India.

Last week, investment management company KKR & Co Inc KKR bought a 1.28% stake in Reliance Retail for $754 million.

Why Does It Matter: U.S. investors seem to be in a rush to pour their money into Reliance this year. The Indian giant's Jio has raised above $20 billion this year from tech giants Alphabet Inc GOOGL GOOG, Facebook Inc FB, Amazon Inc AMZN, and Intel Corp INTC — among other companies.

Earlier this month, there were reports that Ambani had plans to offload approximately 40% shares in Reliance Retail. Amazon.com Inc. AMZN was reported to be eyeing a $20 billion stake in the retail venture as well, while Walmart Inc. WMT looks to fund rival Tata Group's retail app with a funding of up to $25 billion, according to local business daily Mint.

Earlier this month, the private equity firm Silver Lake also invested $1 billion in Reliance Retail, following its $748.3 million Jio investment in May.