Top Indian Businessman, Mukesh Ambani has yielded $10 billion through his Digital Platform Business – Jio during the lockdown. The amount was raised in just a period of one month through the investments made in Jio by many Investors. Top Investors’ names include Facebook Inc., Silver Lake and General Atlantic bolster.
The latest name in investors list is of KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) & Co, a New York-based private Equity Firm. KKR & Co has invested in about 2.3 per cent stake in Jio, the telecom and digital services holding company of Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited. The investment made by KKR & Co is worth $1.5 billion or Rs. 113.7 billion. KKR’s investment in Jio is its largest investment in Asia.
According to KKR’s Indian Business Head, Sanjay Nayar, Jio’s business model is scalable to meet the demand of aspiring Indians. He also remarked that Mukesh Ambani’s entrepreneurial vision has a backing of World-Class Management and his goals have played a significant role in expediting the decision-making process in the deal. The deal was completed in just 10 days.
Luring investments to Reliance Jio is a part of RIL initiative to deleverage its Balance Sheets to net zero. Ambani’ business in Oil, Retail and Telecommunications group has a debt of more than $20 billion which is planned to be brought to zero by March 2021.
According to IDBI Capital Market Services Limited’s Institutional Research Head, Sandeep Anand, Reliance Industries is positioning itself as a global technology with international technology and private equity players interested in acquiring stakes in Jio Platforms.
Ambani is planning to shift primarily from his Oil and Petrochemicals Business to Faster growing Consumer Businesses. Reliance wants to establish Reliance Jio as a top e-commerce and payments operator. While global consumer business giants like Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc. are struggling hard to expand their online business in Indian Consumer Market, Reliance has vowed to achieve success in its e-commerce business and this business spirit is what has attracted many investors in holding stakes in Jio.
This year Amazon had made a public announcement of its interest in investing $1 billion in India but because of restrictions, it was not able to invest this much. This is because laws in India are made in such a way that it tends to protect the rights of Small Retailers over interests of big businesses like Amazon. RIL strategy is to construct its e-commerce business in partnership with small retailers to cross the restriction barrier in doing business.
When Jio was initially launched it had successfully made strategies that vanquished Telecom Industries Old Business Players. Reliance Jio expanded its 4G network across the nation and to acquire the maximum number of customers, it offered the services at a price which its rivals from industry were not able to offer.
Presently, Reliance Jio is India’s largest Wireless Carrier. Ambani’s knowledge of doing good business is what attracted investors and helped Reliance to make $10 billion in a month during a time when businesses all over the globe are facing loss due to Covid-19 Pandemic and Lockdown.