An investor rush is on way in Reliance Industries’ retail business — just as a bevy of marquee names flocked to its digital arm amid the economic mayhem triggered by the pandemic.

A beginning was made on Wednesday when Reliance announced US private equity firm Silver Lake Partners will pick up 1.75 per cent in Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd for Rs 7,500 crore. Silver Lake is likely to be followed by KKR, which is reportedly in advanced talks to invest around $1.5 billion as Mukesh Ambani looks to lay the marker for Jeff Bezos’s Amazon and Walmart-led Flipkart in India.

Silver Lake’s investment values Reliance Retail Ventures at a pre-money equity value of Rs 4.21 lakh crore, its second-billion dollar investment in a Reliance subsidiary after its $1.35 billion investment in Jio Platforms announced earlier this year.

As much as Rs 1.52 lakh crore has been invested by 13 investors in Jio Platforms, the RIL subsidiary for digital services, and market circles are not ruling out the possibility of some of them picking up stakes in the retail arm as well.

Speculation is rife on Facebook and Google’s interest as they try to create a base for their payment platforms, to be followed by others such as General Atlantic and Mubadala.

It is learnt that all the 13 investors in Jio Platforms have been offered a chance to invest in the retail unit.

“We believe technology will be key to bringing the much-needed transformation in this sector so that various constituents of the retail ecosystem can collaborate to build inclusive growth platforms. Silver Lake will be an invaluable partner in implementing our vision for Indian Retail,’’ Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of RIL, said.

While RIL had used the proceeds from the transactions in Jio Platforms to largely retire debt, it is now likely to plough the money in retail to scale up the business, more particularly the e-commerce operations in food and grocery as it looks to integrate more small shops.

The announcement of the deal led to RIL shares settling 2.57 per cent higher at Rs 2,161.25 on the BSE. RIL has a market capitalisation of around Rs 14.24 lakh crore if one was to include the partly paid shares.

The transaction has also thrown up questions on whether RIL is adequately valued at the current market price or is there is more upside in the stock.

Amid differences, analysts have put the sum-of-parts valuation of the various businesses at around Rs 16 lakh crore: over Rs 4 lakh crore for the oil-to-chemicals business, Rs 4.2 lakh crore for retail, Rs 6 lakh crore for Jio Platforms and cash in books of over $1 billion. Going by this estimate, there could be only some upside left in the stock.

While the latest transaction values Reliance Retail at over $58 billion post investment, it is below the estimate of brokerages such as CLSA.

The brokerage said the deal value of Rs 4.21 lakh crore is 12 per cent lower than the Rs 4.77 lakh crore equity value assigned in its September 2021 target price.

The brokerage has a sum-of-parts-valuation of Rs 14.32 lakh crore: Rs 4.7 lakh crore for O2C business, Rs 4.62 lakh crore (excluding the minority interest) for Jio, Rs 4.7 lakh crore for the retail business and Rs 44,700 crore as the value of other business minus debt.

On the other hand, BofA Securities has a fair value of Rs 15.92 lakh crore on Reliance Industries minus debt and other payables of Rs 58,600 crore. It has an enterprise value of Rs 11.70 lakh crore on the consumer business and Rs 5.51 lakh crore on the other business.