The global e-commerce major Alibaba is eyeing a stake in food and grocery chain, Spencer’s Retail, according to various newspaper reports. RP-Sanjiv Goenka’s retail chain, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CESC Ltd, is also in talks with Amazon for stake sale, the reports also said. However, the grocery retail chain dismissed the speculations.
The Jack Ma-promoted e-commerce major along with other global majors such as Amazon are speeding up their efforts to increases their presence in Indian in the brick-and-mortar business. The Chinese firm is already a significant shareholder in Paytm Mall, BigBasket and Zomato.
Recently, Amazon along with Samara Capital closed a deal with Aditya-Birla Group owned More retail chain for Rs 42 billion.
Spencer’s recorded a revenue of Rs 20.91 billion in FY18 and a net loss of Rs 129 crore on a turnover of Rs 2,012 crore in the same period. It operates 138 retail stores all across the country.
Meanwhile, the global leader Walmart had already acquired homegrown e-tailer Flipkart earlier this year. Walmart paid $16 billion for a roughly 77 percent stake in Indian e-commerce firm Flipkart, the US retailer’s largest-ever deal as it competed with Amazon.com in an important growth market.
Walmart’s investment includes $2 billion of new equity funding to help accelerate the growth of the Flipkart business and both companies will retain their unique brands and operating structures in India.
Source: Financial Express