Business Desk, ETV Bharat: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) became the first Indian company to hit a market capitalization (m-cap) of over $200 billion after its shares touched a record high of Rs 2,344 apiece in intra-day trade on Thursday.
Notably, the RIL stock has risen by a whopping 165% from its lows seen in March 2020 when the equity markets witnessed steep correction after the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic. Year-to-date, RIL shares are up 55% compared with a 6% decline the benchmark Sensex.
On Thursday, the stock gained as much as 8.5% during the trading session after a Bloomberg report said that RIL is offering to sell a roughly $20 billion stake in its retail business to global e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc. The stock closed the day 7.3% higher at Rs 2,319.
According to the report, Amazon has already held discussions about investing in the Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) unit and has expressed interest in negotiating a potential transaction.
If the deal materializes, it would turn India’s richest person Mukesh Ambani and world’s richest person Jeff Bezos into allies instead of rivals by creating a mega retail behemoth in one of the fastest-growing consumer markets in the world, the report noted.
Interestingly, on Wednesday, RIL announced that PE firm Silver Lake Partners will invest Rs 7,500 crore in RRVL in exchange for a 1.75% stake in the unit.