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Qatar in talks to invest $1bn in Reliance Retail Ventures

By Pramod Kumar
Reliance Retail Ventures owner Mukesh Ambani has a reputation for disrupting rivals in the price-sensitive Indian market with cheap offers Creative Commons
Reliance Retail Ventures founder Mukesh Ambani has a reputation for disrupting rivals in the price-sensitive Indian market with cheap offers

Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) is negotiating to buy a minority stake in Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail Ventures.

The $450 billion Qatari sovereign fund is weighing a $1 billion investment to take about one percent and valuing the retail business at around $100 billion, informed sources told the Financial Times newspaper.

The agreement is yet to be finalised and is subject to change, they said.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) invested $1.3 billion for a 2.04 percent stake in Reliance Retail Ventures in 2020, thus valuing the company at $62.4 billion. Other shareholders include New York-based private equity firm KKR and two Abu Dhabi sovereign investment funds.

QIA last year announced plans to invest up to $1.5 billion in James Murdoch’s Bodhi Tree, a media and education venture in India. It has already invested in Indian startups Rebel Foods and Swiggy, an online food delivery platform.

Reliance Retail Ventures, which is 85 percent owned by Reliance Industries, is run by Ambani’s daughter.

Bloomberg last month reported that QIA was likely to hire Hussam Qasim from Credit Suisse Group AG to boost its domestic investment team.

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