Silver Lake invests fresh $602m in Reliance’s Jio

Bloomberg

A group led by Silver Lake Partners agreed to invest another 45.5 billion rupees ($602 million) in Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd’s digital arm, in the latest vote of confidence in billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s online push.
The US private equity firm and its co-investors will hold a 2.1% stake in Reliance’s Jio Platforms unit, according to a Mumbai exchange filing. The deal follows Silver Lake’s initial investment of 56.6 billion rupees in the company announced last month.
The digital unit has now raised about $12 billion in less than six weeks from a lineup of marquee buyers including Facebook Inc and US buyout firm KKR & Co Reliance announced that Abu Dhabi’s strategic investment arm Mubadala will invest $1.2 billion in Jio Platforms. It’s now valued at about $65 billion.
The latest stake sale comes amid a report that Amazon.com Inc. is in preliminary talks to buy a stake in No. 2 Indian carrier Bharti Airtel Ltd for at least
$2 billion. The US online retailer is in early-stage discussions to buy about a 5% holding in the Indian wireless operator, Reuters said, citing unidentified people.
American technology and investment giants have been buying into Indian companies to build their presence in Asia’s second-most populous nation.
The string of investments will go towards Ambani’s stated goal of slashing net debt to zero at
Reliance Industries, an oil-refining, petrochemicals, retail and telecommunications conglomerate that’s India’s largest company.