India's Reliance Retail in talks with Gulf, Singapore funds on $1.5 bln injection - sources
The company's valuation nearly doubled to $100 billion in 3 years
India's Reliance Retail is in talks with existing investors including the sovereign wealth funds of Singapore and two Gulf countries for combined new investments of around $1.5 billion, three sources with direct knowledge of the plan said. These are some of the world's biggest investment funds.
Reliance Retail is India's largest retailer and is led by Asia's richest person Mukesh Ambani.
The talks with investors are part of an internal target to raise $3.5 billion which the company wants to close by the end of September, Reuters has reported. Of that, QIA last month announced a $1 billion investment and KKR & Co this week $250 million.
Reliance said: "we do not comment on media speculation and rumours".
A second source said some of the investors could end up putting in less than $500 million, and talks were also on with at least one or two further investors for the fund raising.
The final investments or funding plans could still change.
Reliance Industries, the retail arm's parent, also has plans to invest in the ongoing fund raising round of $3.5 billion, two of the sources said.
Reliance sold a 10.09 per cent stake in its retail unit in 2020, valuing it at 4.68 trillion rupees ($56.4 billion). At that time, GIC and ADIA invested $664 million each, while PIF pumped in $1.15 billion, based on current exchange rates.