US private equity firm Silver Lake will invest Rs 5,655.75 crore in Jio Platforms, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), the company said on Monday. The deal comes less than two weeks after Facebook Inc’s investment Rs $5.7 billion in Jio Platform for a 9.99 per cent stake. ‘This investment values Jio Platforms at an equity value of Rs 4.90 lakh crore and an enterprise value of Rs 5.15 lakh crore and represents a 12.5 per cent premium to the equity valuation of the Facebook investment announced on April 22, 2020,’ RIL said in a press statement. Jio Platforms, created last October, houses RIL’s telecom and digital businesses, becoming the largest minority shareholder.
Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director, RIL said, ‘Silver Lake is one of the most respected voices in technology and finance. We are excited to leverage insights from their global technology relationships for the Indian Digital Society’s transformation.’ With approximately $40 billion in combined assets under management, Silver Lake is a large-scale technology investing firm. It has invested in Airbnb, Alibaba, Ant Financial, Dell Technologies, and Twitter, among others. Commenting on the investment, Egon Durban, Silver Lake Co-CEO and Managing Partner, said, ‘Jio Platforms has brought extraordinary engineering capabilities to bear on bringing the power of low-cost digital services to a mass consumer and small businesses population. The market potential they are addressing is enormous.’
The transaction is subject to regulatory and other customary approvals. Morgan Stanley acted as financial advisor to Reliance Industries and AZB & Partners and Davis Polk & Wardwell acted as legal counsels.
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