Silver Lake follows Facebook, to invest Rs 5,656 cr in Ambani's Jio Platforms

Following footsteps of Facebook, Silver Lake Partners - the world's largest tech investor - on Monday agreed to invest Rs 5,655.75 crore to buy a 1.15 per cent stake in billionaire Mukesh Ambani's digital unit that houses India's youngest but biggest telecom firm.

The investment in Jio Platforms is at a 12.5 per cent premium to the Facebook's USD 5.7 billion (Rs 43,574 crore) investment for a 9.99 per cent stake in the firm.

The deal, as well as some other strategic and financial investments in works, will help Ambani cut debt at its oil-to-telecom conglomerate, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL).

"Silver Lake will invest Rs 5,655.75 crore into Jio Platforms," Reliance said in a statement. "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 per cent premium to the equity valuation of the Facebook investment announced on April 22, 2020."
Commenting on the deal, Vikas Halan, Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance, Moody's Investors Service, said "Silver Lake's investment in Jio Platforms further illustrates RIL ability and willingness to monetize its digital services business and reinforces the company's commitment to achieve a zero net debt position by March 31, 2021."
"Silver Lake has an outstanding record of being a valuable partner for leading technology companies globally. 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."
"They 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, and we are honoured and pleased to have been invited to partner with Mukesh Ambani and the team at Reliance and Jio to help further the Jio mission."