L Catterton, TPG also invest in Jio Platforms

NEW DELHI: Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries has raised a record ₹1.04 lakh crore in less than eight weeks from sale of minority stakes in its digital unit Jio Platforms to marquee investors.

On Saturday evening, it announced sale of 0.93% in Jio Platforms to global investment firm TPG for ₹4,546.80 crore and 0.39% to private equity firm L Catterton for ₹1,894.50 crore. With these, Reliance has now sold 22.38 per cent of Jio Platforms to investors including Facebook Inc, securing ₹104,326.95 crore in less than eight weeks, a company statement said. The investments in Jio Platforms, which comprises the firm’s telecoms arm Reliance Jio Infocomm and its music and video streaming apps, give the unit an enterprise value of ₹5.16 lakh crore, it said.

Besides Facebook, Reliance has attracted some of the leading global investment powerhouses at a time when the world is deeply impacted by the coronavirus pandemic resulting in a recession kind of environment for the global economy. Including Facebook, nine marquee investors on a combined basis hold 22.38% stake in Jio Platforms. Facebook holds the largest stake at 9.99%.

“Jio is a disruptive industry leader that is empowering small businesses and consumers across India by providing them with critical, high-quality digital services,” said Jim Coulter, CO-CEO of Tpg—which has more than $79 billion of assets under management including investments in technology companies like Airbnb, Uber and Spotify.