Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund PIF will invest Rs 11,367 crore in Jio Platforms for a 2.32 percent stake, making it the eleventh public investor in the Reliance Industries technology arm in less than two months.

With this investment, Jio Platforms has raised Rs 115,693.95 crore from leading technology investors Facebook, Silver Lake Partners (two tranches) Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala, ADIA, TPG, L Catterton and PIF. This is also the largest continuous fundraising by a company, globally.

PIF is the third sovereign wealth fund after Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Mubadala Investment Company, to invest in Jio Platforms.

Founded in 1971, PIF is among the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world with total estimated assets of nearly $400 billion.

PIF’s investment has been done at a similar valuation as some of the recent private equity investments, giving Jio Platforms an equity valuation of Rs 4.91 lakh crore and an enterprise valuation of Rs 5.16 lakh crore.

This series of fund raising by Jio Platforms comes in the midst of a global lockdown, underscoring India’s digital potential and the robustness of Jio’s business strategy.

Facebook was the first to put its finger in the Jio Platforms pie with a Rs 43,574 crore ($5.7 billion) investment for a 9.99 percent stake. The investment made Facebook the largest minority shareholder in Jio Platforms and valued the RIL technology arm at Rs 4.62 lakh crore ($66 billion) pre-money enterprise value.

Subsequently, many other private equity players too grabbed a slice of the digital subsidiary of the Indian conglomerate.

First Published:Jun 18, 2020 4:14 PM IST