Reliance Jio rakes in Rs 60,596.37 crore investments in just 3 weeks; Facebook, Silver Lake and now Vista!

Following Facebook and Silver Lake investment in Jio platforms, now Vista Equity Partners, a leading global investment firm focused on empowering and growing enterprise software, data and technology-enabled companies that are reinventing industries and catalyzing change invest Rs 11,367 crore at an equity value of Rs 4.91 lakh crore and an enterprise value of Rs 5.16 lakh crore.

Vista investment details

With 20 years of investing experience exclusively in enterprise software, Vista believes the transformative power of technology is the key to an even better future. It has more than $57 billion in cumulative capital commitments with a global network of companies to collectively represent the fifth largest enterprise software company in the world.

Commenting on the transaction with Vista, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Ltd, said, "I am delighted to welcome Vista, one of the world's marquee tech investors globally as a valued partner. Like our other partners, Vista also shares with us the same vision of continuing to grow and transform the Indian digital ecosystem for the benefit of all Indians. They believe in the transformative power of technology to be the key to an even better future for everyone."

Commenting on the investment, Robert F. Smith, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Vista, said, "We believe in the potential of the Digital Society that Jio is building for India. Mukesh's vision as a global pioneer, alongside Jio's world-class leadership team, have built a platform to scale and advance the data revolution it started. We are thrilled to join Jio Platforms to deliver exponential growth in connectivity across India, providing modern consumer, small business and enterprise software to fuel the future of one of the world's fastest-growing digital economies."

Morgan Stanley acted as the financial advisor to Reliance Industries and AZB & Partners and Davis Polk & Wardwell were legal counsels for the Vista deal. Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co served as legal counsels to Vista.

Other recent investments into Jio

As recently, Silver Lake invested Rs 5,655.75 crore into Jio Platforms at an equity value of Rs 4.90 lakh crore and an enterprise value of Rs 5.15 lakh crore. This represents a 12.5% premium to the equity valuation of the Facebook investment announced earlier on April 22, 2020. Considering comprehensive digitisation will be a vital component of the revitalisation of the Indian economy, this investment with Silver Lake is a silver lining amidst the Covid-19 darkness affecting the Indian economy.

Silver Lake is the global leader in large-scale technology investing with a mission to build and grow great companies. The company has partnered with world-class management teams and its investments include Airbnb, Ant Financial, Alibaba, Dell Technologies, Alphabet's Verily and Waymo units, Twitter and numerous other global technology giants.

With a vision to enable Digital India for 1.3 billion people and businesses throughout India, Reliance Jio ropes in multiple investors and investment from Facebook was first amongst the series of investments into Jio platforms worth Rs 43,574 crore to acquire 9.99% equity stake on a fully diluted basis.

The partnership between Facebook and Jio is the largest investment for a minority stake by a technology company anywhere in the world, and the largest FDI in the technology sector in India. The investment goal here is to enable new opportunities for businesses of all sizes, but especially for small businesses across India and create new and exciting digital ecosystems that will empower, enrich and uplift the lives of all 1.3 billion Indians. Through this deal, JioMart and Whatsapp will empower nearly 3 crores small Indian Kirana shops to digitally transact with every customer in their neighbourhood.

These transactions are however subject to regulatory and other customary approvals.