Amazon and Samara acquires food and grocery retail chain 'More'

New Delhi, Sep 20: E-commerce giants amazon.com Inc along with Private equity firm Samara Capital has acquired the food and grocery retail chain 'More', previously owned by Aditya Birla group for a whooping price of Rs 4,200 crores.

The deal which is expected to have been done with a shell structure in place is going to give Amazon a big push in the grocery space which is heating up in India. Samara reportedly acquired a majority 51 percent stake in Aditya Birla Retail, while Amazon's investment arm picked up the remaining 49 percent.

Indian regulations allow foreign retailers to own only 51 percent in multi-brand retail firms which is why Amazon is sticking with a lower stake.

The deal which is expected to have been done with a shell structure in place is going to give Amazon a big push in the grocery space which is heating up in India. Amazon's latest acquisition adds more heat to the US e-commerce giant's battle with Walmart Inc in the Indian market.

In India, Amazon competes with Softbank-backed Grofers and Alibaba-funded BigBasket in the grocery segment.