Business / Who invested how much in Jio Platforms as it raised ₹1.15 lakh crore in 58 days?

Mumbai: The Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund (SWF), Public Investment Fund (PIF), has agreed to buy a 2.32 per cent stake in the Jio Platforms for a sum of Rs 11,367 crore.

The deal, which is 11th in nine weeks for Reliance Industries-controlled Jio Platforms, is subject to regulatory approvals right now.

This investment puts Jio Platforms at an equity value of Rs 4.91 lakh crore and an enterprise value of Rs 5.16 lakh crore -- the same valuation accorded by UAE-base SWFs.

PIF’s investment will translate into a 2.32 per cent equity stake in Jio Platforms on a fully diluted basis. With this investment, Jio Platforms has raised Rs 1.16 lakh crore from leading global investors including Facebook, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala, ADIA, TPG, L Catterton, and PIF, since April 2020. In return for this, RIL has given away a 22.7 per cent stake in Jio Platforms to these investors.

“We at Reliance have enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for many decades. From Oil Economy, this relationship is now moving to strengthen India’s New Oil (Data-driven) Economy, as is evident from PIF’s investment into Jio Platforms," Reliance Chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani said.

Including the BP deal, and the rights issue at the group level, RIL, in this quarter, which has been crippled by a pandemic, has been able to raise a whopping sum of Rs 1.75 lakh crore (about $24 billion) -- way higher than its net debt. 

Jio plans to partly use this money to reduce its debt and partly to reduce the debt position.

Reliance had announced the plan to become a zero net debt company at the end of this financial year. The companies net debt at the end of March 2020, stood at Rs 1.61 lakh crore.

Mukesh Ambani family and private companies controlled by them hold a 50.07 per cent stake in Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). In turn, RIL formerly used to control 100 per cent of the Jio Platforms Limited. However, after the seven stake sales in seven weeks, RIL now owns a 77.3 per cent stake in the Jio Platforms, which in turn controls a 100 per cent stake in the Reliance Jio Infocomm -- the country's youngest and largest telecom services provider.