SoftBank eyes $2-3bn investment in Jio

Japan's SoftBank is looking at buying a $2-3 billion stake in Reliance Jio, Reliance Industries' telecom subsidiary and the country's fastest-growing telco. Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is interested in deleveraging its balance sheet, and reports of SoftBank's Jio investment follow last week's news that Saudi Aramco is in talks with RIL to pick up to 25 per cent in the latter's refining and petchem business for $10-15 billion. According to reports, SoftBank is conducting due diligence for its investment through SoftBank Vision Fund. The retail and telecom arms together contributed around 25 per cent of RIL's 2018-19 revenue. SoftBank has a mobile telecom business in Japan and also owns Sprint in the US. It also has a 30 per cent stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani last year announced a plan to integrate the telecom and retail entities through a consumer platform called New Commerce. However, despite analyst speculation that it would be launched this year, the management has not indicated any timeline for the rollout. RIL has, however, continued to add a number of ancillary tech platforms like Haptik, EasyGov, Saavn and Reverie over the year to create platforms similar to Baidu or Alibaba, which offers e-commerce, entertainment, finance and many other facilities to consumers.