Reliance Industries on Monday became the first Indian company to cross the market valuation of $150 billion. And who became debt free. With the help of continuous growth in its share price.
Market valuation of reliance industries jumped from Rs 28,248.97 cr. to Rs 11,43,667 cr. (USD 150 billion approx) on the early BSE trade. On BSE, the stock surged to a record high of Rs 1,804.10. And it rose by 2.54 per cent on NSE which hit an all-time high of Rs 1,804.20. This year the company stock grew by 19 per cent.
The COVID-19 pandemic has wiped out businesses and forced layoffs in big industries. However, the pandemic couldn’t stop Reliance industries from striking major deals and clearing its debt.
Jio Fundraising
Reliance Industries Limited sold off a 24.7 per cent stake in Jio. Calling it “the largest uninterrupted fundraising by a company anywhere in the world”. It successfully raised Rs. 115,693.95 cr. from 10 investors.
Facebook purchased a 9.9 per cent stake in Reliance Jio for an amount of Rs 43,574 cr. in April. It was the second-biggest deal by Mark Zuckerberg owned Facebook after a $ 22 billion deal with Whatsapp. Later, private equity giant Silver Lake Partners bought a 1.15 per cent share at Rs 5,655.75 cr. in Jio industries.
Vista Equity Partners bought 2.32 per cent share for Rs 11,367 cr., the firm runs the world’s largest tech-focused fund. At this point, Jio industries market value stood at an enterprise value of Rs 5.16 Lakh cr.. New York-based General Atlantic picked up a 1.34 per cent stake in Jio industries at Rs 6,598.38 cr.
In deals with KKR (Private equity company), Mudabla, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, TPG (Global investment firm), L Catterton, and Public Investment Fund (PIF, Saudi Arabia) Reliance raised Rs 48,501 cr. by selling another 9.9 per cent stake.
On May 1, the Indian government sanctioned a deal under which the BP(former British Petroleum company) will be investing Rs. 7,000 cr. in Reliance petroleum.
To capture the growing e-commerce sector in India, Reliance launched JioMart which is an online grocery delivery service in more than 200 Indian cities. Under the Facebook-Jio deal, Reliance will get access to the 400 million user base from WhatsApp when the app rolls out its payment service.
Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd, earlier said that Reliance Industries Limited has plans to become debt-free before March 2021. Reliance Industries Limited had a net debt of Rs 1.61 trillion in March 2020. As of now, the company raised Rs 1.75 trillion and declared it to be debt-free. With a wealth of $ 64.5 billion, Mukesh Ambani became the only Asian to join the world’s ‘Top 10 Richest people’ list. He is currently the richest man in Asia.