Amazon, Samara seek CCI nod to acquire More supermarket chain

Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LCC, the investment arm of US online retail giant Amazon Inc., and private equity firm Samara Capital have sought the Competition Commission of India (CCI)’s approval to acquire supermarket chain More from the Aditya Birla group.

According to documents sourced from business intelligence platform Paper.vc, Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings will acquire 49 per cent stake in Witzig Advisory Services, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Samara Capital, which entered into an agreement to acquire 99.99 per cent of Aditya Birla Retail Limited (ABRL) last month.

Samara Capital will continue to hold the remaining 51 per cent stake in Witzig, which will be the owner of ABRL if the transaction gets a nod from the CCI.

RKN Retail Pvt. Ltd, a majority promoter entity in Aditya Birla Retail, will sell its entire 62.2% stake, while the rest will be sold by another promoter entity Kanishtha Finance and Investment Pvt. Ltd.

The deal was first revealed in an exchange filing by RKN Retail on 19 September.

With 523 supermarkets and 20 hypermarkets, More is the fourth largest supermarket chain in India after Reliance Retail, Future Group and D-Mart. As per sources, the deal values More chain at Rs 42 billion. In FY18, Aditya Birla Retail reported a loss of Rs 4.9 billion on a topline of Rs 44 billion.

Amazon, with this acquisition, will get access a vast supermarket network as retail major plans to build its own food retail business in India. The company is in the process of launching new products for grocery and everyday kitchen supplies, an area where the US firm has committed to invest $500 million.

In food and grocery delivery, firms like Flipkart and Big Basket are creating infrastructure for same-day delivery, which is largely built through partnerships with supermarket chains that act as suppliers for such items. With More, that is exactly what Amazon plans to achieve, say analysts.