Just Dial share price witnesses DECLINE amid Reliance Retail Ventures buying controlling stake in company

As Reliance Industries arm Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) announced an acquisition in Just Dial, a local search engine platform, the shares of the latter company declined over 5 per cent to Rs 1017 per share on the BSE intraday trade on Monday.

Just Dial in a filing to exchanges said, “RRVL will hold a 40.95 per cent stake via preferential allotment (25.33 per cent) and acquisition of stake from existing promoters (around 15.62 per cent) for a total consideration Rs 3,497 crore.”

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Moreover, RRVL will get a 25.33 per cent stake in the company through a preferential allotment of 21.2 million shares at a price of Rs 1022.25 per share, the local search engine also said in a filing.

Further, the company will acquire a 15.62 per cent stake (13.1 million shares) from VSS Mani (existing promoters) at a price of Rs 1,020 per share. The transaction is subject to shareholder and other customary closing conditions and approvals.

The stock at around 1:40 pm was trading at 4.6 per cent lower to Rs 1023.8 per share on the BSE, as compared to an over 1 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex on Monday.

“The capital infused by RRVL will help drive the growth and expansion of Just Dial into a comprehensive local listing and commerce platform. Just Dial would expand discovery on its platform and enhance transactions for millions of products and services. These investments will leverage Just Dial’s existing database of ~30.4 million listings and its existing consumer traffic of ~ 129.1 million quarterly unique users (as on 31 Mar 2021),” Just Dial said in a press release.

Reliance Retail Ventures is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and holding company of all the retail companies under the RIL Group. Reliance Retail is the largest and the most profitable retailer in India with the widest reach.

Just Dial is India's leading local search engine platform which provides search-related services to users across India through multiple platforms such as websites, apps, over the telephone, and text. 

The company has recently launched its B2B marketplace platform, JD Mart which is enabling millions of India’s manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, retailers to become internet ready in post-COVID era, get new customers, and sell their products online.