Silver Lake Partners, the US-based private equity firm has announced to buy a 1.15 per cent stake in Jio Platforms for about $750 million (Rs 5,655.75 crore) at a valuation of $65 billion.

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 22nd April 2020,” Jio and RIL said in a joint statement to the media.

The deal will assist reduce RIL’s debt, which has been increasing due to the expansion of Jio and other businesses.

The development has come after social media giant Facebook announced an investment of $5.7 billion for a 9.99 per cent stake in Jio. The company also stated that it has received strong interest from other financial and strategic investors and it may announce a similar-sized investment in the coming months.

The digital services unit of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries, Jio also handles Jio Infocomm as well as its movie, music and news apps along with other businesses.

On 30th April, Reliance Industries said it will achieve zero net debt status soon. For the January-March quarter, Reliance Jio Infocomm’s net profit grew three folds to Rs 2,331 crore, as compared to the last year.

Revenue for the quarter came in at Rs 14,835 crore compared with Rs 11,715 crore in the last year. As of March 2020, Jio’s subscriber base was at 387.5 million, a 26.3 per cent year-on-year growth with ARPU during the quarter of Rs 130.6 per subscriber per month.