Tata Digital, a unit of Tata Sons, has acquired a majority stake in online grocery seller BigBasket, putting the Indian conglomerate in a direct race with e-commerce players Amazon.com, Walmart’s Flipkart and Reliance Industries.
Tata on Friday declined to give further details on the deal, while BigBasket did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
India’s antitrust body had in March approved the acquisition of up to a 64.3 percent stake in BigBasket by Tata Digital.
Media reports have said the deal is worth about 95 billion rupees ($1.31 billion), and will involve buying out Chinese giant Alibaba’s stake.
The deal comes as e-commerce sales, especially of food and groceries, have accelerated in India as the COVID-19 pandemic spurred a big shift to online shopping.