Consolidating its position in the retail segment, Reliance Retail Ventures (RRVL), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries (RIL), on Thursday signed definitive agreements to acquire 100 per cent equity stake in Metro Cash & Carry India, the Indian arm of German retailer Metro, for a total cash consideration of Rs 2,850 crore. 

Through this acquisition, Reliance Retail gets access to a wide network of Metro India’s stores, located in prime locations across key cities, a large base of registered kiranas and other institutional customers, strong supplier network and some of the global best practices implemented by Metro in India, RIL has said in a statement. 

Metro started operations in India in 2003 as the first company to introduce cash-and-carry business format in the country and currently operates 31 large format stores across 21 cities with about 3,500 employees. The multi-channel B2B cash & carry wholesaler has reached over 3 million B2B customers in India, of which 1 million are frequently buying customers, through its store network and eB2B app. 

“The acquisition will further strengthen Reliance Retail’s physical store footprint and ability to better serve consumers and small merchants by leveraging synergies and efficiencies across supply chain networks, technology platforms and sourcing capabilities. The symbiotic relationship will create greater value for all stakeholders in the retail ecosystem,” RIL said.