Bangalore: Amazon is in talks to buy a 9.9 per cent stake in the retail arm of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd sources said Thursday. They said that Amazon wants a preferred, strategic stake in Reliance Retail for ‘JioMart’.
‘JioMart’, the e-commerce venture of Reliance’s retail arm, was launched in May. It poses a formidable challenge to Amazon.com’s local unit and Walmart Inc’s ‘Flipkart’.
Earlier this year, Amazon India launched a programme to add small local shops on its platform. This development came after India went into a lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.
An Amazon spokeswoman through email said the company does not comment on speculation. On the other hand, Reliance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Reliance is controlled by Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani. The company has raised around $20 billion since late April for its digital arm, including from Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc.