Silver Lake to Invest $1 Billion in Reliance Retail Ventures

(Bloomberg) -- Silver Lake Partners will invest about $1 billion in Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s retail business, the country’s largest.

The California-based private equity firm with stakes in technology-related companies will pay 75 billion rupees ($1 billion) for a 1.75% equity stake in Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd., the Reliance unit said Wednesday in a statement. The firm has about $60 billion under management, including a $1.35 billion stake in Ambani’s digital services business, Jio Platforms Ltd.

Ambani is boosting his grocery and apparel businesses through acquisitions, widening his lead as the country’s biggest retailer and setting the stage for a push into e-commerce to challenge Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc.’s businesses in India. Silver Lake is widening its bet on Ambani’s plans, which include using his conglomerate’s almost 400 million wireless phone subscribers to promote services like digital payments, grocery delivery and streaming entertainment.

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