RIL Market Cap Hits $200 Billion After Reports Of A Likely Reliance-Amazon Deal
Reliance Industires became the first Indian firm to hit a market cap of $200 billion.
Reliance Industries Ltd. became the first Indian company to hit a market cap of $200 billion, as its share price surged on reports that a Reliance-Amazon deal maybe in the works.
The stock settled lower at Rs 2,314.65 apiece, up 7.10% from previous close, imparting the Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate a market cap of Rs 14,67,350.26 crore, or $199.74 billion. Intraday, RIL rose as much as 8.45% to Rs 2,343.90, pegging the company’s valuation at Rs 15,84,908 crore ($215.75 billion) on the BSE.
"RIL displayed its dominance in the index by crossing the MCAP of Rs 15 lac crore today," said S Ranganathan, head of research at LKP Securities.
According to a Bloomberg report on Thursday, Reliance is offering to sell a roughly $20 billion stake in its retail business to Amazon.com Inc., in what could potentially be the biggest-ever deal in India as well as for the Jeff Bezos-led e-commerce firm.
Amazon has held discussions about investing in Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. and has expressed interest in negotiating a potential transaction, Bloomberg quoted a person as saying. RIL is willing to sell as much as a 40% stake in the subsidiary to Amazon, the person said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.
After market hours, however, RIL issued a clarificaton on the news report.
“We do not comment on media speculation and rumours and we cannot confirm or deny any transaction which may or may not be in the works,” the company said in an exchange filing. “Our company evaluates various opportunities on an ongoing basis."
Reports of a likely Reliance-Amazon deal came a day after private equity Silver Lake said it will invest $1 billion in Reliance Retail. KKR & Co. too is said to be keen on a picking up a billion-dollar stake in the firm.