Reliance Industries offers Amazon $20 bn stake in retail arm

New Delhi: Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries is offering to sell a roughly $20 billion stake in its retail arm to Amazon.com Inc, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.

The oil-to-telecoms conglomerate led by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, which has already raised $20 billion in this year from investors including Facebook and Google, is willing to sell about a 40 per cent stake in the retail business to Amazon, the agency reported.

Asia’s richest man, Mr Ambani, after successfully building India’s top telecom network by customers in less than four years, is turning his focus toward retail, hoping to take a dominant position as the country’s huge consumer market comes of age.

Shares in Reliance Industries were up 6.2 per cent in midday trading in Mumbai after hitting a record intraday high. The company earlier on Thursday became the first listed Indian firm to cross $200 billion in market capitalisation.