After raising nearly Rs 1.7 lakh crore, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance industries has announced that it is now net debt-free. The company’s net debt, as of March 21, 2020 was Rs 161,035 crore.
Reliance Industries raised Rs 53,124.20 crore via a Rights Issue. Meanwhile, Jio Platforms raised Rs 115,693.95 crore from 10 global investors in the past 58 days. With this, RIL has raised over Rs 168,818 crore in total.
This, along with the stake sale to BP in the petro-retail JV, the total fund raise is in excess of Rs 1.75 lakh crore, Reliance said in a statement.
This comes after Mukesh Ambani said during the Reliance Industries annual general meeting (AGM) in August 2019 that he aims to make Reliance a net-debt free company before 31st March 2021. He hinted at the time that Jio and Reliance Retail have been attracting investors.
Jio Platforms has raised Rs 115,693.95 crore from global investors including Facebook, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala, ADIA, TPG, L Catterton and PIF since April 22, 2020. PIF’s investment marks the end of Jio Platforms’ current phase of induction of financial partners.
On the other hand, the RIL Rights Issue, which was subscribed 1.59 times, was not only the largest fundraise by a corporate through a rights issue in India.
“Today I am both delighted and humbled to announce that we have fulfilled our promise to the shareholders by making Reliance net debt-free much before our original schedule of 31st March 2021,” Mukesh Ambani said in a statement.
“Over the past few weeks, we have been overwhelmed by the phenomenal interest of the global financial investor community in partnering with Jio. As our fund-raising milestone from financial investors is achieved, we sincerely thank the marquee group of financial partners and warmly welcome them into Jio Platforms. I also express my heartfelt gratitude to all the retail and institutional investors, both domestic and foreign, for their overwhelming participation in our record-setting Rights Issue,” he added.