Reliance industries takes over Urban ladder

Last updated on February 21st, 2023 at 11:37 am

On Saturday, Reliance Industries (RIL) acquired 96 percent equity shares of Urban Ladder Home Decor Solutions Pvt Ltd for Rs 182.12 crore. As per the company statement, Urban Ladder’s share ownership now rests with Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries (RIL) . 

Besides the recent takeover by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s company, RRVL said that it might invest about 750 million rupees to buy the remaining stake in the online home decor company by December 2023. “RRVL has a further option of acquiring the balance stake, taking its shareholding to 100 per cent of the equity share capital of Urban Ladder,” it said.

Mukesh Ambani bought the stake in the Bengaluru-based company from its existing investors including Sequoia Capital India, Kalaari Capital, and Steadview Capital, who have in total invested about $115 million (around Rs 700-750 crore) since the company’s launch in 2012. 

Reliance has been focusing on expanding its e-commerce presence, as the company has tied up with various digital ventures for online deliveries of groceries, apparel and electronics in a space currently dominated by Walmart Inc’s Flipkart and Amazon India.

This year Reliance industries made major global investment deals with corporate giants like Facebook and raised over $20 billion from its global investors, by selling stakes in its Jio Platforms digital business.

The deal brings much relief to the online furniture store, which has been incurring huge losses over past few years. Urban ladder had been dealing with net losses of Rs 118.66 crore and Rs 457.97 crore in 2017-18 and 2016-17, respectively. Besides, in 2018-19 the company reported a profit of Rs 49 crore for the first time since its launch in 2012. The acquisition, thus takes funding load off its mind, giving it more scope to run its operations successfully and expand. According to internal sources, the company would continue to function as a separate brand under Reliance’s umbrella. The company’s CEO and co-founder Ashish Goel would continue to lead its operations for some time.

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