Reliance Retail to Buy Nearly 41 Percent Stake in Just Dial for Rs. 3,497 Crores...

 Highlight :

• Reliance has bought Hamleys, Saavn, Urban Ladder, Netmeds in past year.

• Just Dial's Managing Director will continue to lead the company..

   Reliance acquired a controlling stake in Just Dial for Rs 3,497 crore. The company will make an open offer to acquire an additional 26% stake. The two companies said in a joint press release that Just Dial's founder and chief executive VSS Mani will continue his leadership role at the firm. It is a 25 year old information search and listing company with a nationwide network.

   Reliance Retail has also acquired 1.31 crore equity shares from VSS Mani, which is equivalent to 15.62% post preferential share capital at a price per share of Rs 1,020.00. “The capital infused by RRVL will help drive the growth and expansion of Just Dial into a comprehensive local listing and commerce platform. Just Dial would expand discovery on its platform and enhance transactions for millions of products and services,” the statement said.

   These investments will leverage Just Dial’s existing database of an estimated 30.4 million listings and its existing consumer traffic of around 129.1 million quarterly unique users as on March 31, 2021, the statement added.

   Edelweiss in its report prior to the announcement of the deal had noted, “We believe RIL could be looking to leverage JD’s capabilities JD Omni product for digitalisation of merchant inventory, strong feet on street, its payment platform — for its JioMart venture. The JD app has multiple services that could strengthen the technological backbone for RIL’s super-app aspirations. However, since the acquisition is likely on RIL’s books, and not on Jio Platforms’, we reckon retail business synergies might be the key reason for the deal.”

 RRVL director, Isha Ambani said, “The investment in Just Dial underlines our commitment to new commerce by further boosting the digital ecosystem for millions of our partner merchants, micro, small and medium enterprises. We look forward to working with the highly experienced management team of Just Dial as we further expand the business going forward.”