General Atlantic agreed to buy Rs 6,598 crore stake in Jio Platforms Ltd. as the private equity firm became the fourth investor to bet on billionaire Mukesh Ambani's telecom and technology assets in less than a month.
The global growth equity firm will pick 1.34 percent stake in the holding company for digital and telecom assets of Reliance Industries Ltd., according to an exchange filing. The investment values Jio Platforms at an equity value of Rs 4.91 lakh crore and an enterprise value of Rs 5.16 lakh crore.
The valuations are similar to at which Facebook Inc, and private equity firms Silver Lake and Vista Equity Partners invested in Jio Platforms, controlled by Asia's richest man.
After the transactions are completed, RIL will own 85.2 percent stake in Jio Platforms and the four investors will hold a combined 14.8 percent. Of the total Rs 67,200 crore from the four investors, Jio Platforms will use Rs 39,965 crore to redeem the optionally convertible preference shares held by Reliance Industries and retain the rest.
Reliance had consolidated telecom and digital business in Jio Platforms, a debt-free entity, to make it comparable with global platforms such as Alphabet Inc., Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., among others.
The General Atlantic investment, along with the rights issue and Facebook investment, will lower RIL's consolidated net debt by 75 percent.
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