Reliance in talks to buy Milkbasket, Urban Ladder: Report

The news comes as the COVID-19 pandemic forces many Indians indoors, spurring a wave of online shopping, including for daily groceries such as milk.

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani during a Reliance 43rd Annual General Meeting, in Mumbai on Wednesday.  (ANI)

Reliance Industries Ltd is in talks to buy online furniture retailer Urban Ladder and milk delivery firm Milkbasket to strengthen its e-commerce business, the Times of India newspaper reported on Monday.

The oil-to-telecoms conglomerate's talks with Urban Ladder are at an advanced stage, the report said, citing four unnamed sources briefed on the matter. A deal could be pegged at around $30 million, it said, citing one of the sources.

Representatives at Reliance and Urban Ladder did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Milkbasket declined to comment.

Reliance, led by Asia's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, launched an online grocery service JioMart in May, a move rivalling Amazon.com Inc and Walmart Inc's Flipkart in India, a key growth market for e-commerce.

Ambani has raised more than $20 billion in the past few months, including from Facebook and Alphabet's Google, for Reliance's digital arm, Jio Platforms.

The Times of India report said, citing a source, that Milkbasket had held talks with Amazon and Alibaba-backed online grocery retailer BigBasket, but the discussions did not result in a deal due to a mismatch in valuation expectations.