Reliance Industries gains 7% as Facebook to buy 9.9% in Jio for $5.7 bn

Shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) gained 7 per cent at Rs 1,326 on the BSE on Wednesday in early morning trade, after the company announced that Facebook would invest Rs 43,547 crore ($5.7 billion) in the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary Jio Platforms to expand its presence in India. With today’s gain, the stock of RIL has rallied 14 per cent from its Tuesday’s low of Rs 1,164 on the BSE.

“”RIL, Jio Platforms and Facebook, Inc. (“Facebook”) today announced the signing of binding agreements for an investment of Rs 43,574 crore by Facebook into Jio Platforms,” the company said in press release. READ IT HERE

"This investment by Facebook values Jio Platforms at Rs 4.62 trillion pre-money enterprise values ($65.95 billion, assuming a conversion rate of Rs 70 to a US Dollar). Facebook’s investment will translate into a 9.99 per cent equity stake in Jio Platforms on a fully diluted basis," it added.

The company added, "Our goal is to enable new opportunities for businesses of all sizes, but especially for the more than 60 million small businesses across India.

Reliance Jio, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries, has been the fastest-growing telecom network in the country since its launch in 2016. Jio has more than 388 million customers in India.

At 09:16 am; RIL was trading 6 per cent higher at Rs 1,306 on the BSE, against 0.07 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. A combined 1.6 million shares were changed hands on the counter so far on the NSE and BSE so far.