Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday scooped up another equity partner for Jio Platforms, with global investment firm Vista Equity ploughing Rs 11,367 crore into the digital services arm, heralding the possibility of more such deals as Reliance races towards its zero-debt goal by the end of this fiscal.
After bagging Silver Lake four days ago, RIL said Vista Equity Partners — a global investment firm with more than $57 billion in cumulative capital commitments — would make the investment in Jio Platforms for a 2.32 per cent stake on a fully diluted basis.
The Vista investment puts the equity value of Jio Platforms at Rs 4.91 lakh crore and enterprise value — roughly equity value, debt and cash reserves — at Rs 5.16 lakh crore.
The deal makes Vista the largest investor in Jio Platforms after RIL and Facebook. Including Facebook and Silver Lake, Jio Platforms has raised Rs 60,596.37 crore in less than three weeks.
Announcing its quarterly results for the period ended March 31, 2020, RIL had said it was negotiating with both strategic and financial investors for investments similar to Facebook’s in Jio Platforms, rasing the prospects of more such transactions.
“I am delighted to welcome Vista, one of the world’s marquee tech investors globally as a valued partner. Like our other partners, Vista also shares with us the same vision of continuing to grow and transform the Indian digital ecosystem for the benefit of all Indians,” Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director, of Reliance Industries, said.
Silver Lake along with investment firm Sixth Street Partners has recently invested $1 billion in Airbnb Inc. A part of the deal, reportedly, was the issue of warrants that can be converted into shares.
Reliance sources said none of the three investors in Jio Platforms have been issued convertible warrants and they would all pick up direct equity.
The markets gave a thumbs up to the deal with the shares of RIL gaining 3.62 per cent or Rs 54.55 to settle at Rs 1,561.80 at the BSE. At the closing price, the market cap of Reliance stood at over Rs 9.90 lakh crore.
