Eye on ‘new commerce’, Reliance Retail buys Just Dial for Rs 3,497 cr

Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL), the retail arm of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), will purchase a majority stake of 66.95 per cent in B2B search engine Just Dial for Rs 3,497 crore.
RRVL will maintain 40.95 per cent and would make an open supply to amass as much as 26 per cent in accordance with Sebi takeover rules. VSS Mani will proceed as managing director and chief govt officer of Just Dial, RIL mentioned in a inventory change submitting.
The deal will contain a preferential allotment of two.12 crore fairness shares (equal to 25.33 per cent publish preferential share capital) at Rs 1,022.25 per share and acquisition of 1.31 crore fairness shares by RRVL from VSS Mani (equal to fifteen.62 per cent publish preferential share capital) at a value per share of Rs 1,020.

“The capital infused by RRVL will help drive the growth and expansion of Just Dial into a comprehensive local listing and commerce platform,” the submitting mentioned.
These investments will leverage Just Dial’s current database of 30.4 million listings and its current client visitors of 129.1 million quarterly distinctive customers (as of March 2021), it added.
Reliance Retail director Isha Ambani mentioned, “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.”

“Our vision has evolved to not only provide search and discovery but drive commerce across merchants through our B2B platform and enable further consumer to merchant commerce given our platform engagement,” mentioned Mani.