After raising about $10 billion in less than a month, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio might attract more investments from three of the largest Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds.
According to a Bloomberg report, the funds are in advanced talks to invest in Jio Platforms. The sovereign funds in talks with Jio include Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Co, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Saudi Arabia’s The Public Investment Fund. Of these, a $1-billion deal with Mubadala Investment might be announced as soon as this week, the report said citing sources.
Ever since Facebook bought 9.99 per cent stake in Jio for $5.7 billion, the company attracted a slew of marquee investors, including US private equity giant KKR, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners and General Atlantic. Diverse marquee investors are becoming long-term shareholders of Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL) because of a unique set of technologies and platforms under one entity. There are no similar opportunities available anywhere else globally. And an endorsement of the quality of the management.
Investments by leading global growth investors will enable Jio to scale its ecosystem and reaffirm the firm as a next generation software product and platform company. Reportedly, Ambani, who has targeted to turn Jio into a zero debt company by March 2021, is mulling an overseas IPO for Jio Platforms in the coming months, within the next 12-24 months.
Jio Platforms is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries. Reliance Jio is India's largest wireless carrier with 376.67 million users in January 2020.