- After a recent deal with Facebook, RIL today announced that PE Giant Silver Lake will invest 5,655,75 crores for a 1.15 percent stake in Jio Platforms.
Days after announcing a 43,574 crore deal with Facebook, Reliance Industries today announced that Silver Lake, a private equity company, will invest 5,655,75 crores for a 1.15 percent stake in Jio Platforms. Jio Markets this investment value at an equity valuation of about 4.90 lakh crore and a corporate valuation of about 5.15 lakh crore.
The Silver Lake deal reflects an equity value premium of 12.5 percent of the Facebook investment in Jio Platforms, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL).
Many investments made by Silver Lake included Airbnb, Alibaba, Ant Financial, the Verily and Waymo divisions of Alphabet, Dell Technologies, Facebook, and several other global technology leaders.
Reliance had said last week that it was in negotiations with other strategic and financial investors for a similar-sized deal to slash debt, after selling a 10 percent stake to Facebook.
Commenting on the transaction with Silver Lake, Reliance Industries Ltd., Chairman and Managing Director Mr. Mukesh Ambani said, “I am pleased to welcome Silver Lake as a trusted partner in continuing to expand and develop the Indian digital ecosystem to benefit all Indians. Silver Lake has an excellent record of being a trusted partner for world-leading technology companies. Silver Lake is among technology and finance’s most known voices. We are excited to leverage perspectives from their global tech partnerships for the transformation of the Indian Digital Society.
Egon Durban, co-CEO and managing partner of Silver Lake, described Jio Platforms as one of the most outstanding companies in the world, led by an extremely powerful and ambitious management team that drives and actualizes a courageous dream. “We have brought exceptional technical skills to bear on bringing the potential of low-cost digital technology to a mass customer and small business population,” he said.
Jio Platforms Limited (‘Jio’), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited, has developed a world-class, all-IP, strong future proof network with the new 4G LTE technology (through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited). This is the only network that was created and born from the ground up as a Mobile Video Network and that supports Voice over LTE. This is ready for the future and can easily be upgraded to accommodate even more data, as technology progresses to 5 G, 6 G, and beyond.
Morgan Stanley served as financial adviser to Reliance Industries and as legal counsel to AZB & Partners and Davis Polk & Wardwell.
“This partnership with one of the world’s most renowned tech-investors, Silver Lake, has particular significance in the wake of the severe economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, globally and particularly within India. Comprehensive digitization would be a critical component of the Indian economy’s revitalization, “claimed Jio Platforms in the release.
The transaction is subject to customary regulatory and other approvals.
