E-commerce Behemoth, Amazon and Samara Capital in Talks to Acquire ‘More’
Amazon has acquired various small businesses and other e-commerce business in the past few years. Various mergers and acquisitions have been done by Amazon since 1998. With continuous growth and profitability of the E-commerce Behemoth Amazon, now there are speculations that it will be merging along with Samara Capital to acquire one more e-commerce business ‘More’. Samara Capital is a private Indian based equity firm which basically invests in Emerging Indian Companies (EICs). Together, in partnership with Samara Capital, Amazon is in talks to acquire ‘More’.
As per reports, it is been unofficially stated that Amazon will be incorporating with Samara Capitals to acquire about 42 to 49% of Aditya Birla Retail Ltd.’s Supermarket chain ‘More’. Investing around ₹ 4,200-4,400 crore, Amazon is planning to buy ‘More’. Since the United States e-commerce has grown at doubled pace in the retail and grocery business in India, it will leave no stones unturned in order to acquire ‘More’ in partnership with Samara Capitals. In partnership with Amazon and depending on the stake it put in buying, Samara will invest in the remaining staking holding amount.
To avoid complications, Amazon will invest in a lower stake of the minimum threshold for buying, ultimately using the indirect route for investment. Foreign retailers are allowed to own only 51% of stakes in a multi-brand retail venture after approval of the government. They need to obey various other conditions and rules.
Amazon had been in discussion regarding investment with RP Sanjiv Goenka a group owned Supermarket chain known as Spencer’s Retail Ltd.
As per the reports from some anonymous sources, it has been cited that Amazon is planning a large number of investments in Retails and grocery business. It is been said that Amazon has distinctively set aside around $500 million of the amount to invest in food retails business in India. As per the ‘Economic Times’, it was reported in May 2018 that roughly around ₹ 4,300 crores were estimated as the price to sell ‘More’ by Aditya Birla Retail. Also, news was hovering that an agreement was signed for this.
Although there are speculations that Amazon has bought stakes in Kishore Biyani’s Future group, it is still not a confirmed report. There is no confirmation regarding the market speculation from either Amazon or from Samara Capitals about the acquisition of ‘More’. When tried to probe regarding this news, there was no response of emails from the spokesperson of both Amazon and Samara Capitals firm.
Amazon had expanded its empire in retail and grocery business in India. It has a tough competition with its rival company in the United States Walmart Inc. which is trying to spread in India’s fastest growing online retail business.
Various other competitors like Flipkart, Walmart has been trying to take root and expand in the grocery and retail business giving tough competition to Amazon.
It is not yet confirmed by the news of the acquisition of ‘More’ by Amazon as both the spokesperson of Amazon and Samara Capitals have not given any official statement on it. With the buzz going on in the market about this news, it won’t be a surprise if Amazon will acquire ‘More’ – one of the largest chain of Supermarkets in India
About ‘More’
Supermarkets have been trending in India since last decade. ‘More’ is among the top largest supermarkets chain in India. Among other popular supermarkets such as Reliance Retails, Future Groups and D-Mart, ‘More’ ranks fourth in the country. It is a retail arm of Aditya Birla Group Company. With around 590 Supermarkets and 23 Hypermarkets spread around the country, More is trending and making good business in retails and grocery. It also provides online grocery services in some of the cities in India such as Bangalore, Pune, and NCR.
