RIL now eyeing on Online Pharmacy Business after taking a majority stake in Netmeds for Rs 620 Crore
Mukesh Ambani’s company Reliance Industries can buy majority stake in online pharmacy company Netmeds for $ 130 million or roughly Rs 620 crore. The company’s talks are in an advanced stage. With this deal, Reliance Industries can play a big stake in e-commerce.
After buying, Reliance will put more money to enhance the operation
According to sources, Reliance Industries can complete the deal for $ 13–15 million. Apart from this, Reliance Industries will also invest separately for the expansion of the company’s operations. Reliance will do this work with its other company. The reason for this is not to make a direct entry into Reliance. Pharmacy company Netmeds was started in 2015 by Pradeep Dadha.
Netmeds has tieup with Reliance Retail
A spokesperson for Reliance said that our company evaluates various opportunities on an ongoing basis. Any developments will notify exchanges, according to SEBI. Dadha said that NetMeds has a tieup with Reliance Retail. Netmeds spends 90 percent of its revenue in manufacturing drugs. It manufactures goods from other drug delivery platforms such as 1mg, medlife and pharmacy.
4 million people buy medicine online
According to a report by market research firm Redseer, the e-pharma industry, including consultancy and diagnostics, is worth around $ 1.2 billion. It is expected to reach about $ 16 billion in five years. While more than 40 lakh families were already buying medicines online. So now more and more people are buying medicines online. Sales of these products were up to 10-20 times before Kovid-19. The CEO of another e-pharma platform said, “Order volumes are still higher than they were before Covid-19. But going forward we are looking at supply problems and manpower shortages to meet the growing demand .
Reliance’s second big move in the pharma sector
Negotiations between Reliance and NetMeds went on before the coronavirus lockdown. NetMeds also negotiated with Walmart-owned Flipkart. This will be Reliance’s second major move in the pharma sector. Last year, it acquired 82 per cent in Bangalore-based C-Square Info Solutions for a total of Rs 82 crore, which makes software for distributors, retailers and sales forces in the pharma sector. Some of the company’s clients include Apollo Pharmacy, Akok Ingram and other players.
The initiative is boosting Reliance’s online-to-offline (O2O) commerce business. Facebook had earlier invested $ 5.7 billion in Reliance’s telecom and digital services business Jio Platforms for a 9.99 percent stake.
