Private equity firm Silver Lake to invest Rs 5,655.75 crore in Reliance Jio Platforms

Published by : theadmin | May 4, 2020 6:01 am

In a deal which came less than two weeks after Facebook announced a $5.7 billion investment, another US company Silver Lake will invest Rs 5,655.75 crore in Reliance Jio Platforms for a 1.15% stake at an equity value of Rs 4.90 lakh crore.

Silver Lake is a global leader in technology investing, with over $43 billion in combined assets under management and committed capital and a team of approximately 100 investment and operating professionals located around the world in Silicon Valley, New York, Hong Kong and London. A report said. The company gained popularity after acquiring PC maker Dell Inc along with Michael Dell in 2013 and have investments in Airbnb, Alibaba, Ant Financial, Alphabet’s Verily and Waymo units, Dell Technologies, Twitter and numerous other global technology leaders.

‘Reliance Industries Limited and Jio Platforms Limited announced today that Silver Lake will invest Rs 5,655.75 crore into Jio Platforms. This investment values Jio Platforms at an equity value of Rs 4.90 lakh crore and an enterprise value of Rs 5.15 lakh crore and represents a 12.5% premium to the equity valuation of the Facebook investment announced on April 22, 2020,’ RIL and Jio in a joint statement said Monday.

“…Silver Lake is one of the most respected voices in technology and finance. We are excited to leverage insights from their global technology relationships for the Indian Digital Society’s transformation,” Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Ltd, said in a statement.
“…They (Jio Platforms) have brought extraordinary engineering capabilities to bear on bringing the power of low-cost digital services to a mass consumer and small businesses population. The market potential they are addressing is enormous…,” said Egon Durban, Silver Lake Co-CEO and Managing Partner.

“In the wake of the severe economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, globally and especially within India, this partnership with one of the most renowned tech-investors globally, Silver Lake, has special significance. Comprehensive digitisation will be a vital component of the revitalisation of the Indian economy,” Jio Platforms said in the statement.

“The investment by Silver Lake is underlines further testament to the world-class digital platform that Jio has built, powered by leading technologies, such as Broadband connectivity, Smart Devices, Cloud and Edge Computing, Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Augmented and Mixed Reality and Blockchain,” it added.

Having 388 million subscribers – Reliance Jio – RIL’s telecom unit will continue to remain a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Platform.