Facebook likely to buy 10% stake in Reliance Jio

Social media major Facebook is reportedly planning to buy 10 per cent stake in the country's biggest telecom company Reliance Jio.

Reliance Industries Limited had set a target to make its telecom services arm Jio debt-free by March 31, 2020.

According to Financial Times, Facebook is looking at buying a multibillion-dollar stake in Reliance Jio which has been valued at USD 60 billion by analysts at Bernstein.

Both Reliance Jio and Facebook did not comment on the report.

The international financial daily said that the lockdown may have an impact on the timing of the deal.

Reliance Industries (RIL) in October had announced to set up a new subsidiary to bring all its digital initiatives and apps under a single entity, and infuse Rs 1.08 lakh crore equity into this new unit.

Jio apps like JioTV, JioCinema, JioNews etc are to be brought under this new entity in a move to consolidate digital platforms into an elegant capital structure to increase the attractiveness and simplify the structure for possible strategic investors.

On March 18, RIL took over some of the debt of Reliance Jio but the company neither disclosed financial details of the transaction nor the names of creditors.

In March last year, assets worth about Rs 1.25 lakh crore were demerged from RJIL to Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) aimed at optimising operational efficiencies and better monetisation of core digital connectivity platform, tower and fibre passive infrastructure.