United States-based private equity firm Silver Lake has doubled its investment in the Jio Platforms division of Reliance Industries, the company's second biggest ownership venture in recent weeks.
Reliance Industries has announced that Silver Lake has given the green light to pump another $600.7 million into the technology business, building on an initial investment of INR56.6 billion in May.
The company based out of Menlo Park, which last month poured in almost $750 million in Reliance, disclosed the additional infusion strengthened its shares in the Indian business group to 2.08 percent, up from 1.15 percent.
The new investment from Silver Lake is now the seventh deal that Reliance Jio Platforms has approved in as many weeks. Abu Dhabi-based sovereign firm Mubadala said on Friday it would invest $1.2 billion in Jio, a group operated by Mukesh Ambani, the wealthiest man in India.
So far, the telecommunications empire has secured over $12 billion in less than two months. Jio, which has over 388 million subscribers since 2016, has enticed foreign capitalists in search of a piece of one of the most important internet markets in the world, reports said.
The latest contract with Silver Lake, a technology group with over $43 billion in combined portfolio management, comes in the wake of investments by the American social media giant, which secured a 10 percent share for $5.7 billion, and private equity companies General Atlantic, KKR and Vista Equity Partners.
Jio Platforms, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries, is a cutting-edge technology conglomerate. Reliance Jio Infocomm, with 388 million mobile clients, will continue to function as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jio Platforms.
Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, disclosed that Silver Lake's move to boost its stake despite uncertainties caused by the ongoing global health crisis, was a solid endorsement of the resilience of India's economy, which the Indian billionaire said will certainly grow bigger in the coming months.
In a related development, reports have stated that American online retail empire Amazon is seriously looking into acquiring shares valued at around $2 billion in Bharti Airtel, India's third biggest telecom group, while search giant Google has held discussions for a similar contract with Vodafone Idea, the second biggest telco.
Meanwhile, Ambani is securing more capital in part to trim down his oil-to-retail giant Reliance Industries' total debt of about $21 billion to zero by early next year, a pledge he made to stakeholders earlier, Mahesh Uppal, director of communications consultancy group Com First, disclosed.
