Following Facebook, Reliance Industries in talks with other investors for the sale of similarly-sized shares

Earlier this week, JioMart, a Reliance Retail e-commerce company, opened a business account on Facebook’s WhatsApp.

Days after selling a stake in its digital arm to Facebook for $ 5.7 billion, Reliance Industries said Thursday that it is in talks with other strategic and financial investors for a similarly sized deal that will help reduce debt at the unit. It houses the youngest in India but the largest mobile phone operator. Without disclosing the companies’ identities, RIL in its fourth quarter income statement said the investment would be announced in the coming months.

“In addition to FB’s investment, the board was informed that RIL has received great interest from other strategic and financial investors and is in good shape to announce an investment of similar size in the coming months,” he said.
Before last week’s announcement that Facebook bought a 9.99 percent stake in Jio Platforms Ltd, there were unconfirmed reports that the company was in parallel talks with Google.

The potential interest, the company said, establishes “Jio Platforms’ appeal to the world and is a strong validation of RIL’s ability to conceive disruptive new businesses on a large scale.” “With strong visibility into these capital infusions, the board was informed that RIL is poised to reach zero net debt status before its own aggressive timeline,” the statement said.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani is looking to replicate the success of WeChat and Alipay in China as multipurpose super apps, platforms with built-in chat features, payment and financial services, and online shopping, to take on Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart in a merchant market. email that KPMG says is likely to grow to $ 200 billion by 2027.

The link brings together WhatsApp, India’s most popular app with roughly 400 million users, and Jio’s mobile services with 388 million subscribers.

WhatsApp would be integrating a “Jio shopping bot” in the API (application programming interface) and would allow users to add the bot to their contacts. Once added, users can search for a local business, view available products in a catalog, and purchase the product in-line or in-store.

Earlier this week, JioMart, a Reliance Retail e-commerce company, opened a business account on Facebook’s WhatsApp. Connect WhatsApp users with JioMart through automated text messages and complete delivery of orders through local supermarkets or Kirana stores.

Although the service is only available in three cities, the experiment offers an example of how the WhatsApp-JioMart combination will work as a multipurpose mobile service that connects hundreds of millions of consumers with local Kirana stores.

The Facebook deal as well as the one indicated by the company on Thursday along with a potential sale of 20 percent stake in Reliance’s oil-to-chemicals business to Saudi Aramco over a $ 15 billion request would help Ambani cut back. your group’s overall net debt and helps move toward your goal of zero net debt by March 2021.

The acquisition of a 9.99 percent stake in Jio Platforms Ltd for $ 5.7 billion represents Facebook’s second largest investment to date (the largest was the WhatsApp acquisition for $ 19 billion in February 2014 ).

The increased foreign direct investment in the technology sector in India is also expected to give the American social media company a broader position in its largest global market. New shares will be issued to Facebook and you will gain a position on the Jio Platforms board.

Ambani, in August last year, had told Reliance Industries shareholders about plans to sell stakes in some of the companies with the aim of freeing the company from net debt by 2021. “In the very near future, JioMart and WhatsApp will empower nearly 3 crore small Indian stores in Kirana to conduct digital transactions with every customer in their neighborhood, ”Ambani, 63, had said in a video message after the mega deal announcement on April 22.

“This means that all of you can order and get faster delivery of day-to-day items, at nearby local stores. At the same time, small kiranas can grow their businesses and create new employment opportunities using digital technologies, “he said.