Abu Dhabi Investment Authority to invest Rs 5,683.5 crore into Jio Platforms; RIL unit has raised nearly Rs 1 lakh crore in past 7 weeks

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) will invest Rs 5,683.5 crore into Jio Platforms for an equity stake of 1.16 percent, a press release by Reliance Industries Limited and Jio announced. “With this investment, Jio Platforms has raised Rs 97,885.65 crore from leading global investors including Facebook, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala and ADIA in less than seven weeks,” the press release noted. ADIA’s investment at an equity valuation of Rs 4.91 lakh crore and enterprise valuation of Rs 5.16 lakh crore comes close on the heels of its counterpart Mubadala Investment Company’s purchase of 1.85 percent in Jio Platforms for Rs 9,093.6 crore and a second round of investment by private equity giant Silver Lake and co-investors. The series of investments in Jio, which runs movie, news and music apps as well as the telecom company Jio Infocomm, was led by a 9.99 percent stake sale to Facebook Inc for Rs 43,574 crore on 22 April. Since then, General Atlantic, Silver Lake (twice), Vista Equity Partners, KKR and Mubadala have put their money in Jio. Jio Platforms is a next-generation technology platform focused on providing high-quality and affordable digital services across India, with more than 388 million subscribers. Jio Platforms has made significant investments across its digital ecosystem, powered by leading technologies spanning broadband connectivity, smart devices, cloud and edge computing, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, augmented and mixed reality and blockchain. ADIA, estimated to have assets of nearly $700 billion, has invested in 18 companies, according to data from Crunchbase. ADIA has long been spending money in Indian equities, even acting as an anchor investor in several IPOs, and fixed income. “ADIA has invested in private equity since 1989 and has built a significant internal team of specialists with experience across asset products, geographies and sectors,” RIL’s press release said. In April 2019, ADIA and India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) agreed to buy a 49 percent stake in the airport unit of Indian conglomerate GVK Power & Infrastructure. It invested another $495 million in renewable energy firm Greenko Energy Holdings, which runs wind, solar and hydro projects, in 2019. ADIA was also a leading investor in Bandhan Bank’s IPO. ADIA has been investing funds on behalf of the Abu Dhabi government since 1976 with a focus on long-term value creation. It manages a global investment portfolio that is diversified across more than two dozen asset classes and sub-categories, according to its website. (Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd which publishes Firstpost)