India’s Reliance says retail venture completes fundraising, rakes in $6.4bln

India’s Reliance says retail venture completes fundraising, rakes in $6.4bln

NEW DELHI- India's Reliance Industries Ltd on Thursday said its retail arm had completed its fundraising exercise as more than half a dozen investors poured 472.65 billion rupees ($6.37 billion) into a 10.09% stake in the company in two months.Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) began raising capital in September, with U.S.-based private equity firm Silver Lake Partners pumping 75 billion rupees for 1.6% of the venture.The eight other investors in RRVL include Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, private equity firm KKR & Co Inc , Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Co and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.The funds will help Reliance, India's biggest retailer with roughly 12,000 stores, to aggressively expand its so-called new commerce venture, which ties neighbourhood stores to Reliance for online deliveries of groceries, apparel and electronics in a space currently dominated by Walmart Inc' s Flipkart and Amazon.com Inc's Indian arm."With our focus on New Commerce, we are committed to playing a transformational role in the Indian retail sector by empowering millions of merchants and micro, small and medium enterprises," RRVL director Isha Mukesh Ambani said in a statement.Isha is the daughter of Asia's richest man and Reliance's chairman, Mukesh Ambani.Mumbai-headquartered Reliance in August announced it