US private equity firm Silver Lake will invest Rs 5,655.75 crore in Jio Platforms for a 1.15% stake at an equity value of Rs 4.90 lakh crore, a deal which came less than two weeks after Facebook announced a $5.7 billion investment into the unit of Reliance Industries. This is as per a report in the Economic Times.
Jio Platforms is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited focussed on next-generation technologies. Reliance Jio Infocomm, which provides connectivity platform to over 388 million subscribers, will continue to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jio Platforms.
In April, US social networking giant Facebook said it will acquire a 9.9% stake in Jio Platforms for Rs 43,574 crore, which according to analysts, would help reduce debt at RIL.
“Silver Lake is one of the most respected voices in technology and finance. We are excited to leverage insights from their global technology relationships for the Indian Digital Society’s transformation,” Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Ltd, said in a statement.
“…They (Jio Platforms) have brought extraordinary engineering capabilities to bear on bringing the power of low-cost digital services to a mass consumer and small businesses population. The market potential they are addressing is enormous…,” said Egon Durban, Silver Lake Co-CEO and Managing Partner.
“In the wake of the severe economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, globally and especially within India, this partnership with one of the most renowned tech-investors globally, Silver Lake, has special significance. Comprehensive digitisation will be a vital component of the revitalisation of the Indian economy,” Jio Platforms said in the statement.
“The investment by Silver Lake underlines further testament to the world-class digital platform that Jio has built, powered by leading technologies, such as Broadband connectivity, Smart Devices, Cloud and Edge Computing, Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Augmented and Mixed Reality and Blockchain,” it added.
Silver Lake has around $40 billion in combined assets under management and committed capital with a singular focus on the world’s great tech and tech-enabled opportunities. Its investments have included Airbnb, Alibaba, Ant Financial, Alphabet’s Verily and Waymo units, Dell Technologies, Twitter, and numerous other global technology leaders.