Mukesh Ambani, daughter Isha overseeing job, cost cuts at Reliance Retail to push valuation to $125 billion: Report

Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, along with his daughter Isha Ambani, is overseeing cuts to jobs and costs, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg, asking not to be named. These efforts include, but are not limited to, limiting physical store expansion, reigning in marketing budgets, merging Reliance Brands with Reliance Retail and reviewing global brand partnerships.

The overhaul comes after brokerages estimated the company’s valuation at $50 billion, which is half the amount at which it last raised money two years ago.

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Ambani recently acknowledged to investors that Reliance Retail had grown too big too quickly as a result of aggressive expansion across formats and geographies, according to Bloomberg.

The hiring of employees above a certain pay scale also now requires approval from the chairman’s office, the people added.

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The overhaul of Reliance Retail will help the company tackle competition from Tata Group, Amazon and other quick commerce platforms. The firm is also betting on slimmer operations to help weather a broader consumption slowdown in the economy.

Reliance Retail is hoping for a valuation of $125 billion via an initial public offering (IPO). The fresh issue is expected to be a dilution of around 5% stake, which means early investors will get little room for an exit via the IPO.

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Financiers from Qatar Investment Authority to General Atlantic collectively invested $8.24 billion between 2020 and 2023 for a 11.9% stake in the firm, according to an analysis by Stanford C. Bernstein.

Reliance Retail’s financials

The company had recorded ₹2.73 lakh crore in revenue and ₹11,100 crore in profit in the financial year 2023-24. Reliance Retail had about 34 crore registered customers across over 19,100 stores and four applications as of December 31.