(Adds company comments, details from report, background)
BENGALURU, Feb 16 (Reuters) - India's Tata Group will buy a 68% stake in online grocery startup BigBasket for about 95 billion rupees ($1.31 billion), television channel ET Now said
on Tuesday, citing sources.
The salt-to-software conglomerate has been planning to launch a "super app" that will tie in all its consumer businesses, according to media reports, as it competes against Amazon.com Inc and Reliance Industries Ltd in India's booming e-commerce market.
Bengaluru-based BigBasket competes with Walmart Inc-owned
Flipkart and Amazon's "Fresh" service as more consumers stay indoors and choose to shop online during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tata's stake will translate into an enterprise value of 135 billion rupees for BigBasket, which is backed by Alibaba
, ET Now said.
BigBasket top management, including co-founder Hari Menon, are likely to stay on for three to four years, according to the report.
Tata Group and BigBasket said they had no comments on the matter.
($1 = 72.7100 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Anuron Kumar Mitra in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.)
((AnuronKumar.Mitra@thomsonreuters.com; +91 99863 58469;))