Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries has boosted its holding in its nascent mobile unit Reliance Jio Infocomm to 98.9%.
The parent company did so in March, increasing its stake from 95% as of 31 March 2013, a spokesperson confirmed.
“As the Reliance…
Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries has boosted its holding in its nascent mobile unit Reliance Jio Infocomm to 98.9%.
The parent company did so in March, increasing its stake from 95% as of 31 March 2013, a spokesperson confirmed.
“As the Reliance Jio project progresses, incremental financing is being raised as a combination of debt and equity,” the spokesperson said.
“The equity has been subscribed to by Reliance Industries, while remaining shareholders have not subscribed to the rights issue by Reliance Jio.”
He stressed that Reliance industries has subscribed to the equity at par only and not bought stock from other investors.
Father and son investors Mahendra and Anant Nahata now have just a 1% interest in the mobile operator as they have not made any investments to help it roll out services since 2010, India’s Business Standard reported, citing unidentified documents.
However, the Nahatas reportedly still have a seat on the Reliance Jio board.
Reliance Jio, the latest entrant in India’s already crowded mobile market, aims to launch 4G services by early 2015. To do so, it agreed to pay US$1.7bn to secure 1,800 MHz spectrum in the February auction, adding to its existing 2,300 MHz frequencies. In recent months, the company has also inked multiple infrastructure-sharing agreements with rivals.
It will cost Reliance Jio an estimated Rs700bn (US$11.46bn) to roll out its network, the Business Standard report stated.
Last month, the paper cited an unnamed source as saying Reliance Jio was looking to raise about Rs90bn (US$1.46bn) in overseas debt financing.
