Chennai: There are reports of Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba being in talks with Reliance Retail to set up one of the biggest retail joint ventures in the country.
It has also been reported that Amazon is looking to buy up to 49 per cent share in Aditya Birla’s More supermarket chain. Amazon and Flipkart, which was recently bought by Walmart, are already bending FDI rules for back-door entry into offline multi-brand retail.
The news comes at a time where Indian traders protestign against the Walmart-Flipkart deal fearing that it would affect domestic retail trade.
As per reports, Alibaba is looking to invest at least $5 billion and acquire a large stake ‘preferably 50 per cent’ in Reliance Retail to set up a ‘behemoth in the digital marketplace and also expand Alibaba’s physical retail businesses in India, to counter American rivals Amazon and Walmart,’ according to a media house.
Alibaba’s plan as per the report is to create a large omni-channel retail entity, meaning an approach to sales that provides shoppers a unified experience across online and offline channels through the use of technology.
Discussion between senior executives of Alibaba and RIL are said to have already taken place. But there are reports around stating that Alibaba was in talks with not just Reliance, but also with the Tata Group and Kishore Biyani’s Future Retail.
Alibaba already has huge investments in a number of Indian companies, including Paytm (where it holds 49 per cent), Zomato, BigBasket, TicketNew, among others.
On the other hand, Amazon is also reported to be ‘in advanced talks’ to acquire about 49 per cent in Aditya Birla Retail Limited’s More supermarket chain, as it looks to expand its online groceries retail business.
The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) rules in India allow up to 51 per cent foreign investment in multi-brand retail, while 100 per cent FDI is allowed in single-brand retail.