Amazon in talks to buy stake in India’s Reliance Retail

Amazon.com Inc is in talks with Reliance Industries Ltd’s retail unit to buy a stake in India’s biggest brick-and-mortar retailer, two sources with knowledge of the talks told Reuters on Friday.

Amazon’s massive online presence could help bolster Reliance’s consumer and private labels business. More importantly, a partnership would help the duo counter Walmart, which last year invested $16 billion in India’s Flipkart, in the battle for a bigger share of India’s fast-growing e-commerce market.

In late December, India modified rules around foreign direct investment (FDI) in e-commerce, creating additional hurdles for companies such as Amazon and Flipkart, and giving companies such as Reliance an edge.

Amazon had made the proposal to Reliance – controlled by Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man – for the partnership, but it was not clear whether a deal would materialize, said one of the sources.