Reliance Indl. Infra

Updates to add context, source comments in paragraph 3-14

By Aditya Kalra and Vibhuti Sharma

MUMBAI, May 11 (Reuters) - Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio Platforms has shifted its planned Mumbai IPO to a pure fundraising exercise, abandoning earlier plans that would have allowed major foreign investors to sell some of their shares, two sources said on Monday.

​Jio Platforms, which owns the world's second-largest telecom company by users after China Mobile 600941.SS, counts Meta META.O, Alphabet's GOOGL.O Google and Vista Equity Partners among its investors. Its initial public offering has been long-awaited and could be India's largest ever.

The firm earlier held discussions with its foreign investors for each to sell 8% of their individual holdings in the IPO, totalling 2.5% of the company, Reuters reported previously. That would have allowed new investors to come in and let foreign investors sell some of their holdings without any fresh fundraising in a process called an offer-for-sale in India.

That plan has been dropped, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. They requested anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Reliance now plans to raise fresh funds totalling 2.5% of the company's size. "Investors were not keen to sell and wanted to stay invested for the long term," one of the sources said.

The Economic Times was first to report on the company's plans to pivot to a fresh fundraising with the offering on Monday.

Jio Platforms did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

WAR OVERHANG

The filing for the Jio Platforms IPO, which was expected as early as March, was pushed back following the outbreak of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, with investors losing appetite for new listings.

In March, Walmart-backed WMT.O Indian fintech firm PhonePe paused plans for an IPO, citing geopolitical ​tensions and volatility in global capital markets.

The Iran war is certainly an "overhang," said the first source, speaking about Jio Platform's delayed IPO filing.

Jio Platforms' listing is a key plank of Ambani's long-term vision to transform Reliance from an oil-and-chemicals giant into an "everything company" spanning consumer, retail and technology.

In 2020, Jio raised funds from major global investors who were betting on India's rapidly expanding digital economy where smartphone penetration is accelerating, internet costs are among the lowest in the world and a young, mobile-first population is coming online.

In November, investment bank Jefferies estimated Reliance Jio's valuation would be $180 billion. Sources told Reuters in January that the IPO could be worth as much as $4 billion, though final numbers would be decided later.

Reliance Jio Platforms has hired 17 banks to manage its Mumbai listing.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Vibhuti Sharma; Editing by Sonali Paul and Thomas Derpinghaus)

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April 15 (Reuters) - Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd REII.NS:

• RECOMMENDS DIVIDEND OF 3.50 RUPEES PER EQUITY SHARE

Source text: ID:nBSEbtyJwc

Further company coverage: REII.NS

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** Shares of Reliance Infrastructure REII.NS fall 3% to 331 rupees, their lowest since June 2

** Engineering and construction co posts a 98.6% Q/Q decline in June-qtr profit to 598.4 mln rupees ($6.92 mln); rev from ops rises 43.8% Q/Q

** More than 3.3 mln shares change hands, 1.4x of 30-day avg

** Stock up 8.8% YTD

($1 = 86.5130 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Rudra Pratap Singh in Bengaluru)

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April 16 (Reuters) - Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd REII.NS:

• RECOMMENDS DIVIDEND OF 3.50 RUPEES PER EQUITY SHARE

Source text: ID:nBSE3X5RX0

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Oct 11 (Reuters) - Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd REII.NS:

• SEPT-QUARTER CONSOL PROFIT 31.2 MILLION RUPEES

• SEPT-QUARTER CONSOL NET REVENUE FROM OPERATIONS 122.4 MILLION RUPEES

Source text for Eikon: ID:nNSE1tlTXP

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By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Disney DIS.N and Reliance RELI.NS have offered some concessions to secure an India antitrust approval for their $8.5 billion media merger, but are unwilling to sell any cricket broadcast rights, the biggest prize in the deal, two sources familiar with matter said.

Reuters reported earlier this week that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) sent a warning notice to the companies expressing concern that their merged entity will have a tight grip on most cricket rights for TV and streaming in India, and can hurt advertisers.

In their response, the companies have offered to go easy on advertising rate hikes and not increase them unreasonably, the sources said.

Reliance-Disney are aiming to create India's biggest entertainment player which will compete with Sony 6758.T, Netflix NFLX.O and Amazon AMZN.O with 120 TV channels and two streaming services, but cricket, which has a fanatical following in the country, is the crown jewel.

Many antitrust experts had said that one way to clear the antitrust hurdle was to sell some cricket rights, be it for some tournaments or broadcast medium like TV, but Disney and Reliance have made a new private submission at the CCI in which they have said they are unwilling to do so, said the two sources, who declined to be named as the process is confidential.

The submissions are being reported for the first time. Reliance, Disney and the CCI did not immediately respond to Reuters queries.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra; editing by David Evans)

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April 18 (Reuters) - Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd REII.NS:

• RELIANCE INDUSTRIAL INFRASTRUCTURE - DIVIDEND 3.5 RUPEES PER SHARE

Source text for Eikon: [ID:]

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April 20 (Reuters) - Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd REII.NS:

• RECOMMENDED A DIVIDEND OF 3.50 RUPEES PER SHARE

Source text for Eikon: ID:nBSEb1hGFM

Further company coverage: REII.NS

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