Reliance Industries Ltd.’s retail unit agreed to buy majority stake in local search and listings firm Just Dial Ltd. for Rs 5,719 crore.
Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. will acquire 25.35% via preferential allotment of 2.11 crore shares at Rs 1,022.25 apiece, totalling Rs 2,164.9 crore, according to an exchange filing. The preferential issue will be at a 4.9% discount to Friday’s closing price of Rs 1,073 apiece.
Reliance Retail will then make an open offer for an additional 26% of public shareholding. And it will also acquire 1.31 crore shares from the promoters at Rs 1,020 apiece.
The Mukesh Ambani-owned retailer is seeking to acquire an aggregate of 66.95% stake in Just Dial through the combination of all these transactions at Rs 5,719 crore.
Existing promoters will continue to own 10.6% and VSS Mani will remain the managing director for five years.
Just Dial had more than 3 crore listings and nearly 13 crore million quarterly unique users across web, mobile, app and voice platforms as of March, according to its filing.
“The investment in Just Dial underlines our commitment to new commerce by further boosting the digital ecosystem for millions of our partner merchants, micro, small and medium enterprises,” Isha Ambani, director at Reliance Retail Ventures, said in a company statement. “We look forward to working with the highly experienced management team of Just Dial as we further expand the business going forward.”
Just Dial shares closed 3.35% lower on the NSE ahead of the announcement compared with an almost unchanged Nifty 50.
Just Dial’s revenue from operations fell 5.8% sequentially to Rs 165.4 crore in the quarter ended June. The company posted a loss of Rs 3.82 crore during the quarter.
