RIL's Market Cap Rose By Rs 2.4 Lakh Crore On 6 Stake Sale Deals, Rights Issue

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), has been on a fundraising spree in the last one and a half month, raising spirits of investors and improving confidence among brokerages on its commitment to become a debt-free conglomerate by March 2021.

The company has also impressed market watchers with the way it has been forward-thinking in making a gradual shift from dependence on petrochemicals by venturing into the retail business.

After conquering the telecom business in India, the Mukesh Ambani led company has been pushing towards consumer-based digital technology business in India. Using Reliance Jio's large subscriber base, the company was able to deepen its reach in via music, video streaming, online shopping, broadband and more, making Jio Platforms an attractive investment for foreign investors.

Late on Friday, RIL said that Silver Lake and its co-investors will invest Rs 4,546.80 crore in Jio Platforms, in addition to the Rs 5,655.75 crore of investment by Silver Lake announced on 4 May. Earlier in the day, it had informed exchanges that Abu Dhabi-based sovereign investor Mubadala Investment Company is set to invest Rs 9,094 crore in Jio Platforms for a 1.85 percent stake.

RIL has sold a combined stake of 19 percent interest in its digital arm to 6 investors-Facebook, Mubadala, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic and KKR in less than six weeks. Of these, the biggest chunk of 9.9 percent was bought by social media giant Facebook Inc for $5.7 billion.

As a result, on Friday RIL's share price hit a fresh record high of Rs 1,617.70 and closed flat at Rs 1,580.60. The stock, an index heavyweight, rallied 80 percent from its March lows against 33 percent upside in the Nifty 50.

Since the announcement of its first deal with Facebook on 22 April, it gained 29 percent.

The company is also the most valued company on the Indian stock exchanges with a market capitalisation of more than Rs 10 lakh crore. As on 5 June, its market cap was Rs 10,68,806.51 crore, a Rs 4,76,621.70 crore of wealth from its March lows and Rs 2,38,632 crore from 22 April.

This week RIL also successfully completed its Rs 53,124 crore rights issue, which was subscribed nearly 160 percent. The issue was open between 20 May and 3 June.

The firm on 30 April had announced its fund-raising plan of Rs 53,125 crore by way of a 1:15 rights issue. It was a part of the conglomerate's strategy to deleverage its balance sheet to become a zero net debt company by March 2021.

According to data from Dealogic, the issue is the biggest in the world by a non-financial issuer in the last 10 years. The only other non-financial issuer close to the issue size is $7.002 billion issue by Bayer AG in June 2018.