Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd, the retail unit of India’s most valuable company, is preparing to go public soon, two people aware of the development said. “It may be after June and the company expects a good response,” one of the two people cited above said on condition of anonymity. Parent Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) operates its retail business through Reliance Retail Ventures, the holding company for Reliance Retail Ltd and Reliance Brands.
The latter operates joint ventures with international brands. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of RIL, is betting on the company’s consumer businesses—Reliance Retail Ltd and Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd—to double sales in about seven years and expects the businesses to contribute nearly as much to overall earnings as its energy and petrochemical businesses. Reliance Retail already operates more than 9,900 stores in over 6,400 cities across India.