Jio adds another investor, gets $1.2 billion from Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala

Abu Dhabi sovereign fund Mubadala Investment Company is all set to invest $1.2 billion or Rs 9093.6 crore in Indian telecom giant Jio for a 1.85% stake. 

The latest deal is made at a similar valuation to the other recent private equity investments in Jio – equity valuation of Rs 4.91 Lakh crore and enterprise valuation of Rs 5.16 Lakh crore.

With this investment, Jio platforms have secured a total investment of Rs 87,655.5 crore from 6 overseas entities in the past 2 months by diluting an 18.97% stake.

While Facebook acquired 9.9% stake in Jio for Rs 43,574 crore~$5.7 billion in April, US-based Silver Lake Partners announced to buy a 1.5% stake for about $750 million, followed by Vista Equity, General Atlantic, and KKR picking up 2.32%, 1.34%, and 2.32% stake respectively on a fully diluted basis. 

This development adds to the rush of news breaking in the past few weeks of reported interest by large foreign companies eyeing stakes in Indian telecom firms. 

On Thursday, news came in of Amazon eyeing around a 5% stake in Bharti Airtel, India’s third-largest telecom firm. And just days past, it was reported that Google was also in talks with Vodafone-Idea for a 5% stake. However, Vodafone and Airtel have denied such talks.

Mubadala Investment Company is a three-year-old sovereign investor managing a global portfolio which is termed as the second-biggest state investor after Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. The firm manages about $229 billion value of assets under management. 

Having over 50 businesses and investments in more than 50 countries, its portfolio companies are spread in sectors including aerospace, agribusiness, ICT, medical technology, semiconductors, among others.