Reliance Retail to buy Metro’s cash and carry business for Rs 2850 crore

Tags: Economy/Finance

Reliance Retail Ventures, a subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) said on 22 December 2022 that it  had agreed to buy German retailer Metro Indian unit for Rs 2850 crore (USD 344 million).

However the deal is subject to approval by the various regulatory body in India.

The deal includes 31 wholesale distribution centers, land banks and other assets owned by METRO Cash & Carry in India.

METRO AG, which operates in 34 countries, entered the Indian market in 2003. 

Cash and carry business model is a type of wholesale trading where the customer pays in full for the goods it purchases and no credit is extended by the seller to the purchaser. The purchasers are small businesses, kirana stores etc.

METRO also operated in the wholesale  B2B(Business to Business) market  which includes retailers and kirana stores, hotels, restaurants and caterers (HoReCa), corporates, Small and Medium enterprises, companies and institutions as its  customers.

The B2B segment is considered to be a low-margin business and multinationals such as French Carrefour have exited from the country in 2014.

Reliance Retail is the subsidiary company of RIL which operates the retail business of Reliance and is the largest retail company in India.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)

Reliance Industries Limited was founded by Dhirubhai Ambani in 1973 

It is the largest private sector company in India 

Headquarters: Mumbai 

Chairman: Mukesh Ambani.