M&A

M&A

RIL in talks to acquire local search engine Justdial for Rs.6,600-Cr

Economic Times  

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is in talks to buy Justdial from its founding promoters in a USD 800-900 million transaction. The transaction, if successful, will help Reliance Retail leverage the merchant database of the 25-year-old information search and listings company as well as its pan India network, to accelerate its own local commerce and payments play. Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas and Goldman Sachs are the advisors in the transaction. First generation entrepreneur and the managing director VSS Mani and family controls 35.5% of the company, which currently is valued at INR 2,387.9 crore. RIL is planning to buy partially from Mani and that would trigger an open offer for an additional 26% of the company's equity which, at current prices, could lead to a INR 4,102 crore payout at current share prices. If the open offer is fully subscribed to, RIL will end up with an over 60% stake, with Mani staying on as a junior partner to run the operations. The deal will also see a primary infusion of capital into the company by Reliance. Reliance is already the largest organized retailer in the country while Justdial is the market leader in the local search engine segment with nearly 150 million average quarterly unique visitors across multiple platforms.