Reliance Industries in talks to acquire Urban Ladder, Milkbasket

The Indian multinational conglomerate, Reliance Industries Ltd is in discussions to acquire online furniture retailer Urban Ladder and milk delivery organization Milkbasket to reinforce its e-commerce operations, as reported by Times of India. 

 

The leading conglomerate's discussions with Urban Ladder are at a propelled stage, the report stated, referring to four anonymous sources that are informed on the issue. An arrangement could be pinned at around $30 million, it stated, referring to one of the sources. 

 

The news has emerged at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has enforced numerous Indians to stay cooped in their homes, prompting a flood of online shopping, including for everyday food supplies like milk. 

 

Mukesh Ambani's Reliance had recently launched the online grocery service Jio Mart in the month of May, to keep up India's Amazon.com Inc and Walmart Inc's Flipkart.

 

Ambani has hoisted over $20 billion in the previous couple of months, including from Facebook and Alphabet's Google, for the conglomerate's telecom organization, Jio Platforms. 

 

Alongside these two organizations, Reliance Industries is also in discussions with the e-pharmacy startup as well as Zivame, a lingerie shopping platform. Meanwhile, it's negotiations for the potential merger of Future Retail with the organization’s retail arm Reliance Retail are still ongoing. 

 

Referring to a source, the TOI report had also added that Milkbasket had been involved in discussions with Amazon and the online grocery retailer BigBasket, but the negotiation didn't finalize owing to a clash in valuation outlook. Milkbasket's recently raised capital of $5 million has given the organization an extended hope and is haggling over the valuation of the organization.