Qatar sovereign fund looking to pick stake in Ambani's Reliance Retail: Report

Qatar's sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) is looking to get a minority stake in Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail Ventures, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing sources. The QIA may consider picking a minority stake in RRVL, the FT report said, with a $1 billion investment giving it a stake of about 1 per cent and valuing the business at around $100 billion.

FT's report has not been verified by ET independently.

Ambani had said he planned to list his retail operations at some point but was yet to give a timeline or details of his plans.


Reliance Retail Ventures houses retail operations such as international partnerships and consumer goods business.

Reliance Retail, headed by the billionaire's daughter Isha Ambani, has core retail businesses that include digital and brick-and-mortar stores.

It has partnered, in recent years, with a slew of global brands like Burberry, Pret A Manger and Tiffany to launch and expand their presence in India.

Calculations by global brokerage firm JPMorgan peg Reliance Retail’s enterprise value at $112 billion and implied equity value at $102 billion. UBS has valued it at $110 billion, Bernstein at $111 billion while domestic brokerage JM Financial estimates it at $105 billion.

"We estimate equity value for Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) at Rs 8,600 billion or $105 bn, given RRVL’s EBITDA is 2-4% higher than that of RRL as it also has a few other investments/assets apart from its stake in RRL," JM Financial said.

In 2020, RIL sold a 10.52% stake in RRVL to various PE investors when the company was valued at around Rs 4.2-4.3 lakh crore.

In its recently released financial statement, Reliance said that its retail business recorded a quarterly revenue of Rs 69,948 crore, up 19.5 per cent YoY while EBITDA of Rs 5,139 crore was up 33.9 per cent YoY.

It opened 555 stores in the quarter.

“I am delighted to share that our financial performance in the quarter has been resilient and aligned with our business goals. The sustained growth across consumption baskets has further consolidated our
position as a market leader. We continue to innovate and invest in our stores and digital platforms
to make shopping more engaging for our customers," said Isha M Ambani, Executive Director, RRVL.

RIL’s retail business is the category leader in organized retail across grocery, fashion & lifestyle, electronics. It is India’s largest physical retailer across categories and also has multiple digital offerings like Ajio and JioMart. Besides, Reliance is also expanding its own bouquet of consumer brands.