More big investments into Jio likely in coming months: RIL
New Delhi, April 30 (IANS) Reliance Industries (RIL) on Friday said that it has received strong interest from investors, and major investments into Jio Platforms, in the line with Facebook’s over Rs 43,000 crore investment, may be announced in the coming months.
The company said that such strong interest establishes the attractiveness of Jio Platforms to the world and is a strong validation of RIL’s capability to conceive large-scale disruptive greenfield businesses.
“In addition to the FB investment, the Board was informed that RIL has received strong interest from other strategic and financial investors and is in good shape to announce a similar sized investment in the coming months,” RIL said in a statement.
The statement raises speculations regarding who would be the next big investor into India’s tech giant, Jio.
It said that with a strong visibility to these equity infusions, the Board was informed that RIL is set to achieve net zero debt status ahead of its own aggressive timeline.
The Board was also informed that the company expected to complete the capital raising programme totaling over Rs 1.04 lakh crore during the first quarter of the current financial year. This includes the investment by Facebook in Jio Platforms, the upcoming rights issue and the previous investment by British Petroleum in FY 2019-20, it said.
The latest mega investment of Rs 43,574 crore by Facebook, was a major development in terms of the Indian tech scenario and also is a boost for Jio. Through the investment, Facebook would pick up 9.99 per cent stake in Jio Platforms.
RIL plans to become a zero net debt company by the end of this fiscal and Facebook’s investment along with other such prospective investments would help a great deal in achieving the target.
With Facebook set to invest Rs 43,574 crore in Jio Platforms Ltd, the Reliance Industries subsidiary has inched closer to become a zero debt company.
The company said that its outstanding debt as on March 31, 2020 stood at Rs 3,36,294 crore or $44.4 billion.
–IANS
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