China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has reportedly made plans to collaborate with one of India’s largest retailer, Reliance Retail Ltd, in a bid to compete with e-commerce giants Flipkart and Amazon that currently dominate the world’s fastest growing economy.
As per reliable sources, Alibaba would pour in about USD 5 billion in the new joint venture and would acquire a large stake in Reliance Retail Ltd, eventually creating a huge e-commerce giant in the digital market as well as expanding its business in Indian market.
According to The Times of India, an official meeting was held recently between Alibaba’s senior executives and Mukesh Ambani led RIL (Reliance Industries Limited), along with Kishore Biyani’s Future Retail and Tata Group. The meeting comprised discussions regarding the agreement that would create a large omnichannel retail firm via the joint venture which would eventually boost the company’s business in India.
As per Alibaba’s executive chairman, Jack Ma, the company is all set to invest about USD 5 to 6 billion and grab hold of about 50% stakes in Reliance Retail Ltd. This would eventually result in the formation of a new joint venture between Reliance Retail and Alibaba, and would reportedly be Alibaba’s largest investment in the Indian company.
Incidentally, the deal is crucial for Alibaba, as it holds 49% stakes in Indian e-commerce payment system and digital wallet company, Paytm, which reportedly was ordered by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to stop onboarding new customers.
However, sources familiar with the knowledge of the matter cite that Reliance Retail plans on making a similar model like Paytm, that would eventually allow Alibaba to take benefit of an effective e-commerce and digital wallet service in India.
Reliable reports state that Alibaba’s plans of investing 100 billion yuan over the next five years on developing a logistics network as a part of its global expansion plan.