Witzig Advisory services, the parent company of More supermarket chain (1), have received a joint infusion of 275 crore INR from Amazon, a global e commerce giant, and Samara Capital, a private equity firm.
Samara Capital holds a 51% stake in Witzig. It has invested a marginally higher sum compared to Amazon, as per reports. In 2018, Amazon, Samara Capital, and Goldman Sachs had formed an association to acquire the supermarket chain, More.
The investment of 4,050 crore INR was made to purchase the chain from the Aditya Birla Group. The value of More stood at 644.09 million to 715.66 million USD. Notably, the acquisition wiped out its debt in the book of Aditya Birla Retail Ltd, valued at 4000 crore INR.
More to Fulfill Groceries and FMCG Orders of Amazon
The funding comes before the festival season India for which etailers are already gathering resources. As per the estimates, the ecommerce market is likely to observe a 70% jump in users in this festive season. It will give companies 45 to 50 million new digital consumers.
Over 50% of these new buyers are likely to come from Tier-II cities of India. As per several projections, the ecommerce companies are likely to observe a 75% jump in gross sale. In 2019, the etailers generated 4 billion USD sales, and in 2020, it is expected to cross over 7 billion USD.
As per reports, Amazon will allow its users to place groceries and FMCG orders on its platforms. Then the nearby More supermarkets will quickly fulfill the orders.
More was the fourth-largest supermarket chain operator in India before the acquisition. It had 568 stores in India with over 2 million sq ft of retail market space. Amazon’s association comes as Reliance Industries is also looking to sell an approximately 40% stake worth 20 billion USD of its Reliance Retail to Jeff Bezos. It would be the biggest deal for India and Amazon.
Author: Rucha Joshi
Source : https://timesnext.com/more-gets-275-crore-inr-from-amazon-samara-capital/
Date : 2020-09-19T06:16:10.000Z