INDIAN oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Reliance Industries said on Friday (5) that Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Co will buy a 1.85 per cent stake in its digital unit, Jio Platforms, for $1.2 billion (£ 959.6 million).
Reliance has now sold a combined 19 per cent interest in Jio Platforms, which houses movie, music apps and telecoms venture Jio Infocomm, in six fundraising deals including a 9.99 per cent stake sale to Facebook for $5.7 billion.
The interest in Jio Platforms highlights its potential to become the dominant player in India's digital economy. The telecoms unit has already decimated several rivals with cut-throat pricing and is counting on Reliance's retail network to expand into e-commerce.
The Jio Platforms investment is the largest in an Indian firm by Mubadala, which is the second-biggest state investor in Abu Dhabi after Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), managing about $240 billion in assets.
The other recent investors in Jio Platforms are private-equity firms General Atlantic, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, and KKR & Co.
Morgan Stanley served as a financial adviser to Reliance Industries, the company said in a statement.
The parent company Reliance Industries on June 3 completed a massive $7 billion rights issue in what it touted as the world’s biggest by a non-financial institution in a decade.
Reliance, owned by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, had said the fundraising drive was meant to pay down debt and help shift the company to a digital future.
The firm said in a statement said that the rights issue was subscribed 1.59 times and attracted “huge investor interest”.
Crew members at Gapstow Bridge in Central Park
Air India crew strolled the busy sidewalks of Times Square
Crew members in front of iconic yellow cabs in New York
From desks to dreams: A journey of girls’ empowerment