Reliance Retail acquires home-products online retailer Urban Ladder | Economic Times

New Delhi: Reliance Retail has acquired home-products online retailer Urban Ladder, capping months of talks between the two companies.Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) told the BSE and NSE on Saturday that its subsidiary Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. (RRVL) has acquired 96% share in Urban Ladder for Rs 182 crore.“RRVL has a further option of acquiring the balance stake, taking its shareholding to 100% of the equity share capital of Urban Ladder,” the filing to the stock exchanges said. RIL further said it would invest an additional Rs 75 crore in the online furniture retailer by December 2023.RRVL, the holding company of Reliance Retail that operates around 12,000 brick-and-mortar stores and JioMart e-commerce platform, is flush with cash as the company so far this year has raised more than Rs 47,000 crore by selling slightly more than 10% stake to a clutch of private equity investors including KKR, General Atlantic, Silver Lake, Mubadala, Singapore’s GIC, TPG, ADIA and Saudi Arabia’s PIF.Founded in 2012 by Ashish Goel and Rajiv Srivastava, the Bengaluru-based company over the years, Urban Ladder has raised investments from Kalaari Capital, Saif Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Steadview Capital. However, the company fell on hard times in recent years, prompting it to initiate talks with RIL.UrbanLadder’s audited turnover was Rs 434.00 crore, and a net loss of Rs 49.41 crore in fiscal year 2019. Reliance said it does not need any regulatory clearance.“No governmental or regulatory approvals were required for the said investment. The investment does not fall within related party transactions and none of RIL’s promoter/promoter group/group companies have any interest in the transaction,” the filing said.