Amazon in Talks to Buy Stake in Reliance Retail, ET Now Reports

P R Sanjai, Bloomberg News

The Amazon.com Inc. logo sits on spools of labels inside the company's fulfilment center in Koblenz, Germany, on Friday, Nov. 23, 2018. Germans are expected to buy about 2.4 billion euros worth of goods on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, an increase of about 15 percent over last year. Photographer: Alex Kraus/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc. is in preliminary talks to acquire a 9.9% stake in Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s retail venture, ET Now reported, citing unidentified people.

Asia’s richest man and the chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd. told shareholders last week that Reliance Retail Ltd. is getting inquiries from investors and may start bringing some on board in the coming months.

“We’ve received strong interest from strategic and financial investors in Reliance Retail,” Ambani told shareholders. “We will induct global partners and investors in Reliance Retail in the next few quarters.”

Ambani’s dealmaking has lured about $20 billion of investments from Google to Facebook Inc. into his digital platform in recent months. The 63-year-old tycoon has identified technology and retail as future growth areas in a pivot away from the energy businesses he inherited from his father who died in 2002.

A Reliance spokesman declined to comment on the report.