“I have fulfilled my promise to the shareholders by making Reliance net debt-free much before our original schedule of 31st March 2021,” said Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries in a statement.
After the mega-investment round for Jio Platforms and the recent right issues, Reliance Industries (RIL) has now become net debt-free. The company has raised over Rs 1.68 lakh crore in 58 days. And do remember, the company has achieved this remarkable goal during the global lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
RIL’s original net-debt was around Rs 161,035 crore (as on 31st March 2020). During the past 58 days, the company has raised Rs 115,693.95 crore from global tech investors and another Rs 53,124.20 crore from RIL’s rights issue. If we also calculate the stake sale to BP in the petro-retail JV, then the total fundraising would raise to Rs 1.75 lakh crore.
Jio Platforms is the ultimate star in the fundraising section. Those who may not know, Jio Platforms is a subsidiary of RIL and houses India’s largest telecom arm Reliance Jio and other digital businesses of Reliance. This includes JioMart (online grocery shop), JioSaavn, Hathway, DEN Networks, Radisys and Haptik.
Starting in April 2020, Jio Platforms has been raising an enormous amount of investment from leading global investors. This includes Facebook, Silver Lake (2 investment), Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala, ADIA, TPG, L Catterton and PIF. In total it has attracted an investment of Rs 104,326.95 crore by selling almost 22.38 per cent stake of the company.
When coming to RIL Rights Issue, its one of the largest ever in India and was subscribed over 1.59 times. It helped the parent company to raise over Rs 53,124.20 crore.
“I wish to assure them that Reliance in its Golden Decade will set even more ambitious growth goals, and achieve them, in fulfilment of the vision of our Founder, Dhirubhai Ambani, to consistently increase our contribution to India’s prosperity and inclusive development,” said Ambani in a press statement.
Ambani further added, “As our fund-raising milestone from financial investors is achieved, we sincerely thank the marquee group of financial partners and warmly welcome them into Jio Platforms. I also express my heartfelt gratitude to all the retail and institutional investors, both domestic and foreign, for their overwhelming participation in our record-setting Rights Issue“.