Reliance Jio to raise Rs. 15,000 crore

The Reliance Jio board on Monday announced that it will raise Rs. 15,000 crore through issuing optionally convertible debt instrument.

"The board of directors at its meeting held on September 12, 2016, has decided to make rights issue of 300,00,00,000, nine percent non-cumulative optionally Convertible preference shares (OCPS) of Rs 10 each for cash, at a premium of Rs 40 per OCPS, aggregating to Rs 15,000 crore," Reliance Jio said in a statement.

On July 14, the board of Reliance Jio had given approval to issue 15 billion equity shares of Rs. 10 each, which would aggregate to Rs. 150 billion on the basis of rights issue. But now, the instrument has been changed from equity to optionally convertible preference shares, Press Trust of India reported.

"Each OCPS shall be either redeemed at a value of Rs. 50 per OCPS or converted into 5 equity shares of Rs. 10 each at any time at the option of the company, but not later than 10 years from the date of allotment of OCPS," the company said in the statement.

Reliance Jio launched its services on Sept. 5. The telecom firm will offer free phone calls and high-speed data services for free until Dec. 31. The spectrum auction will begin on Oct. 1. Airwaves worth Rs. 5.63 lakh crore will be auctioned to telecom firms.

The Reliance Industries stock closed at Rs. 1,046.60 on Monday, up 0.28 percent from its previous close on the Bombay Stock Exchange.