Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) is set to infuse another Rs 15,000 crore in its telecom arm Jio through a rights issue, which is expected to be completed in the next three months. The issue will increase the equity of Reliance Jio to Rs 60,000 crore from Rs 45,000 crore, making it one of the most capitalised telecom companies in India. The rights issue Rs 15,000 crore follows a similar size issue in January this year.
"We wish to inform you that the Board of Directors of the company at their meeting held on July 14 approved further issue of 1,500 crore equity shares of Rs 10 each aggregating to Rs 15,000 crore to the existing equity shareholders of the company on rights basis," Reliance Industries Limited said in a regulatory filing to stock exchanges.
Jio recently said it has invested some Rs 1.34 lakh crore of the Rs 1.5 lakh crore for setting up its network, on spectrum and other expenses. Described as the world's biggest startup with an investment of around Rs 1.5 lakh crore, the launch has been six years in the making since Reliance Industries re-entered the telecom sector by buying a company which had won pan-India 4G airwaves in an auction in 2010.
Jio is likely yo to launch the much-talked about high-speed broadband and 4G telecom services in August this year. The company had said Jio already has over 1.5 million test users on its network, and the trial programme will gradually be upgraded into commercial operations in the coming months. It said the feedback had been encouraging.
It also said that the average monthly data consumption on the Jio network is in excess of 26 GB per user, while average voice usage is more than 355 minutes.
The company is currently offering services for on a trial basis. In June this year, it started offering 4G SIM cards bundled with its LYF smartphones, priced at as low as Rs 2,999. However, it has now begun offering services with Samsung phones and may expand it other smartphone brands, including Apple iPhones.
