Global private equity major Silver Lake Partners has entered into an agreement to acquire to invest Rs 5,655.75 crore in Jio Platforms, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd, in lieu of 1.5 per cent.
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.
The entire investment is made into Jio Platforms, RIL said in a statement.
“I am delighted to welcome Silver Lake as a valued partner in continuing to grow and transform the Indian digital ecosystem for the benefit of all Indians. Silver Lake has an outstanding record of being a valuable partner for leading technology companies globally,” Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director at RIL said.
“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,” he added.
Morgan Stanley acted as financial advisor to RIL, and AZB & Partners and Davis Polk & Wardwell acted as legal counsels.
“Jio Platforms is one of the world’s most remarkable companies, led by an incredibly strong and entrepreneurial management team who are driving and actualising a courageous vision. 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,” Egon Durban, Silver Lake Co-CEO and Managing Partner said.