Telecom company Reliance Jio in on a funding spree as the firm bags its 8th investment in a span of two months. The Indian conglomerate announced investment of Rs 5683.50 crore ($750 million) from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) by diluting 1.16% stakes.
The fresh investment is made at a similar valuation as the other recent private equity investments in Reliance. The company’s enterprise valuation has come close to Rs 5.16 lakh crore while its equity valuation stands at Rs 4.91 lakh crore.
This the third round of funding that Jio has secured in last 3 days. On Friday, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign fund Mubadala Investment Company had invested Rs 9093.6 crore for 1.85% shares. The same day, Jio also received another round of investment of Rs 4546.80 crore from its existing backer Silver Lake for 0.93% stakes.
Post the latest development, the company now has managed to raise Rs 97,885.65 crore from seven global investment giants against a 21.06% stake. Reliance plans to use the raised funds to repay its debt worth Rs 1450 crore in FY19.
The back to back funding rounds in Jio started with Facebook acquiring 9.9% stake for Rs 43,574 crore in last week of April. This was followed by Vista Equity, General Atlantic, KKR, Silver Lake, Mubadala, and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority in subsequent weeks.
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is a sovereign wealth fund of the Abu Dhabi emirate of the United Arab Emirates having assets of nearly $700 billion. Reliance also marked its entrance in the digital grocery market with the launch of JioMart last month.
This development comes at a time when Indian Telecom industry is attracting attention from companies around the world. A few days ago, it was reported that Bharati Airtel and Vodafone Idea received offers of investment from global leaders Amazon and Google respectively.