In yet another significant development, US-based private equity firm Silver Lake has decided to invest Rs 5655.75 crore in Indian technology giant Jio Platforms Ltd. Notably,
This investment values the telecom major at an equity value of Rs 4.90 lakh crore and an enterprise value of Rs 5.15 lakh crore.
“Also, it represents a 12.5% premium to the equity valuation of the Facebook investment announced on April 22,” Reliance said in a statement.
“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,” Mukesh Ambani said.
It is worth mentioning that the Menlo Park-headquartered private equity firm is a large-scale technology investing company. It has invested in dozens of firms, including Unity, Airbnb, Gartner, Alibaba, Didi Chuxing, Expedia, Waymo, ServiceMax, Ant Financial, Dell Technologies, and Twitter, among others.
With a singular focus on the tech-enabled opportunities, Silver Lake has around $40 billion in combined assets.
The partnership with one of the reputed tech-investors has special significance amidst the severe economic disruptions due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
The deal is subject to regulatory and other customary approvals.
Earlier, Facebook has acquired a 9.9% stake in Reliance Jio for Rs 43,574 crore, becoming the largest minority shareholder. Reliance Jio began its commercial operations way back in September 2016, having a subscriber base of around 370 million.
