Reliance Jio Goes Debt-free, Plans to Bring Made-in-India 5G Solutions

Jio's stake sale is over, as the view expressed by investment firm JP Morgan. Starting from April 21st, Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL), the telecom and digital arm of Reliance Industries, owned by richest Indian Mukesh Ambani has started its stake sale. Ambani has set a target to make Reliance net debt free by March 31, 2021, and he achieved that target much before - 3 quarter early. Therefore it is expected that Jio, who already sold nearly one fourth of the company to foreign investors, will not go further. 

A tweet from Reliance Jio also hints to that, as the table summerizes all fund received into Jio. (table below)

Just like NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) made rockets, India's JPL or simply Jio has shown its growth like a rocket. It began from a scratch and developed as a greenfield pure 4G operator, backed by several app based ecosystem. 

Reliance Piramal Deal in Near Future?

As Times Now reported few hours back, Piramal and Reliance Industries will start a joint venture along with SoftBank.

It is still not sure about RIL's presence in the JV, but stakes are high that new in-laws will tie a business knot.

Now big question remains, what will the focus of this yet to be formed JV between Piramal, Ambani and SoftBank. SoftBank is eyeing for a re-entry into India's e-commerce market, while RIL is still playing softly with AJio. Piramal has no existence in that market, as far as I know.

Piramal is a big name in Indian pharma industry, and Reliance can think to tap that market of healthcare in a country with more than 130 cr people.

I am betting on Indian healthcare sector to get a new player. As of now I don't have idea what they are gonna target? e-health ? Wait, first be Reliance confirmed in it!

Update: All hints indicated to fintech JV and SoftBank is already there. No confirmation of Reliance Jio's inclusion in that JV as of now. It should be noted that Jio Money is already afloat from the time of inception of Jio. 

Mukesh Ambani to Get Investors in Jio and its Fiber and Tower Subsidiaries

Reliance Jio became second largest telecom operator in India by the end of April, 2019 beating Airtel, that's nearly 2.5 years after Jio have launched services. While Vodafone Idea achieved 300 million customers after the merger, Airtel crossed that mark in its 19th years of operations. 

Currently Jio has 30.6 crores of subscribers, while first boy Vodafone Idea stands at 40.9 cr and Airtel stands at 28.4 cr. It should be noted that Airtel was market leader for nearly 15 years until Vodafone and Idea merged their business in August 2018 to become new top. 

Back in August 2018, Jio surpassed Vodafone India to stand second as per Revenue Market Share (RMS), while Airtel remained first. Analysts expect Airtel's top spot may be snatched by Jio as early as within next 2 quarters. Jio may also topple Vodafone Idea's top position as largest customer base in less than a year. Reliance Jio is making a profit in its operations and boasts of highest adjusted gross revenue (AGR) in access services amongst all telecom companies 

There are few more advances inside Jio. 

Reliance Jio Joined COAI for Cracking Indus deal?

In between Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom arm of Reliance Industries had inked another tower sharing deal with world's largest tower company - Indus Towers, which is a joint initiative between Bharti Airtel's tower arm Bharti Infratel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular's parent company Aditya Birla Group.

This is the first time Jio collaborates with Aditya Birla Group's telecom firm by any means. Earlier Jio made two deals with Bharti Airtel for sharing each other's infrastructure and using to access bandwidth