Jio closes its eighth deal, gets Rs 5,683.50 Cr from ADIA

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio has announced to raise Rs 5,683.50 crore ($750 million) from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) by diluting 1.16% stake.

The latest deal is made at a similar valuation to the other recent private equity investments in Jio. While equity valuation stood at Rs 4.91 lakh crore, the telecom’s enterprise valuation neared Rs 5.16 lakh crore.

This is the third investment secured by the Reliance Industries’ digital unit in the last three days. On June 5, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign fund Mubadala Investment Company had pumped in Rs 9093.6 crore in Jio for 1.85% stake, Silver Lake and its co-investors also invested an additional amount of Rs 4,546.80 crore for 0.93% stake on the same day. 

With the fresh round, Jio has now secured a total investment of Rs 97,885.65 crore from seven large global investors against a 21.06% stake. The funds would help the company to reduce RIL’s debt which amounted to nearly Rs 1,450 crore in FY19. 

The fundraising spree for Jio started on April 22 when social media giant Facebook acquired a 9.9% stake in it for Rs 43,574 crore followed by Vista Equity, General Atlantic, KKR, Silver Lake, Mubadala, and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority adding to the war chest of capital raised by the Mumbai-based firm.

For the unknown, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is a sovereign wealth fund of the Abu Dhabi emirate of the United Arab Emirates having assets of nearly $700 billion.

Last month, Reliance also launched its e-commerce portal JioMart for several cities across India. This move is expected to change the current positioning of the online grocery delivery service in India which is currently dominated by Bigbasket and Grofers.