India’s antitrust body had in March approved the acquisition of up to a 64.3 percent stake in BigBasket by Tata Digital.
According to Reuters, Tata Sons has purchased a majority share in online food retailer BigBasket, putting the Indian conglomerate in direct competition with Amazon.com Inc, Walmart’s Flipkart, and Reliance Industries.
Tata Digital Limited, a Tata Sons subsidiary, purchased the share. Tata declined to comment on the acquisition on Friday, while BigBasket did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Tata Digital’s acquisition of up to a 64.3 percent stake in BigBasket was approved by India’s antitrust agency in March.
According to media estimates, the purchase is worth around 95 billion rupees ($1.31 billion) and will involve the buyout of Alibaba’s interest in the company.
The agreement comes as India’s e-commerce sales, particularly of food and consumables, have risen as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, which has prompted a significant shift to online shopping.
According to media sources, Tata, which has interests in everything from salt to luxury automobiles to software, is aiming to build a “mega app” that will connect all of its consumer businesses.
72.4200 Indian rupees = $1
(Bengaluru-based reporter Anuron Kumar Mitra contributed to this report; Arun Koyyur edited it.)
