Reliance Industries on Friday claimed it is now a net debt-free company on account of the series of investments made in Jio Platforms and a rights issue, reaching the goal well ahead of the March 2021 date set by chairman Mukesh Ambani.

The oil-to-digital services conglomerate said it has raised Rs 168,818 crore, of which Rs 115,693.95 crore came from 11 investors in Jio Platforms and Rs 53,124.20 crore from its rights issue. If the stake sale to BP in the petro-retail JV is included, the total funds raised is in excess of Rs 1.75 lakh crore.

“With these investments, RIL has become net debt-free,’’ the company said.

The gross debt of RIL in 2019-20 stood at Rs 3,36,294 crore, while cash and cash equivalents were at Rs 1,75,259 crore, translating into a net debt of Rs 1,61,035 crore as of March 31, 2020.

“Today I am both delighted and humbled to announce that we have fulfilled our promise to the shareholders by making Reliance net debt-free much before our original schedule of March 31, 2021,” Ambani said on Friday.

However, RIL’s claim on its zero net debt status lead to some questions. Observers pointed out that RIL has become ‘almost’ net debt free at the current levels. Under the terms of the rights issue, shareholders had to initially pay 25 per cent of the subscription amount. The balance will have to be paid in two instalments in May and November next year. Thus, the entire amount of Rs 53,125 crore from the rights issue will come to RIL’s coffers only in the next fiscal.

Therefore, at the current juncture, RIL has mobilised Rs 13,281 crore from the rights issue. If one were to add the Rs 115,693.95 crore raised by Jio Platforms and Rs 7,000 crore from the stake sale to BP, RIL has raised over Rs 135,975 crore. This is about 84 per cent of its net debt as of March 31, 2020. Moreover, in the Facebook deal, Jio Platforms had retained Rs 14,976 crore and the remaining Rs 28,598 crore went to the parent.

M-cap at Rs 11 lakh cr

The RIL counter on Friday hit a milestone when its market value crossed the Rs 11 lakh crore mark. On the BSE, the RIL share settled at Rs 1,759.50 — a gain of Rs 103.25 or 6.23 per cent. During the day, it soared 7.99 per cent to Rs 1,788.60 — its all-time high. On the NSE, it surged 6.47 per cent to settle at Rs 1,763.20. This led to its market valuation rising by Rs 65,477.03 crore to reach Rs 11,15,418.03 crore.

RIL thus became the first Indian company to cross the Rs 11-lakh-crore market capitalisation. The stock has zoomed 93 per cent from the levels prevailing just before the announcement of the nationwide lockdown in March.