Ambani’s Jio Platforms Raises $4 Billion From Share Sale

Kartik Goyal and P R Sanjai, Bloomberg News

Sim card packets for Reliance Jio, the mobile network of Reliance Industries Ltd., are arranged for a photograph at a store in Mumbai, India, on Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020. Reliance Industries, India's biggest company by market value, posted a 13.5% jump in quarterly net income as growth in telecom and retail business helped outweigh a slump in petrochemical operations. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Jio Platforms Ltd., the digital services business controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, sold about 6% of its shares to investors including Silver Lake and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund for about $4 billion, a stock exchange filing showed.

The Saudi Arabian fund bought its 2.3% stake for 113.7 billion rupees ($1.5 billion), according to the filing from Jio’s parent, Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd. Silver Lake purchased 2.1% of the shares. The other investors were Interstellar Platform Holdings Pte. and General Atlantic Singapore JP Pte.

The share sale helps the Reliance unit reach its goal of reducing net-debt to zero by March 2021. The company earlier sold a 10% stake to a Facebook Inc.-owned business, a deal that was announced April 22.

All told, Jio has now sold about 25% of its shares to buyers including Facebook and U.S. private equity firms KKR & Co., and Silver Lake.