Qatar Investment Authority Likely To Invest $1.5 Billion In Jio Fiber Assets, Talks In Advanced Stage

Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar is in advanced talks with Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) to invest around $1.5 billion (about Rs 11,200 crore) in its fibre-optic assets, reports Hindustan Times.

It is expected that QIA will be investing the sum in an infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) called Jio Digital Fiber Pvt Ltd. to which RIL had moved its fibre-optic assets. The InvIT presently has a 7,00,000 kilometres nation-wide fibre network and plans to expand it further to 1.1 million kilometres.

The monetisation of its fibre assets is in sync with the plan to turn Jio as a whole into an asset-light digital services mammoth, which will help it significantly pare down on costs, while also helping to generate funds for further endeavours, like its planned 5G foray, both in terms of services, as well as in terms of launching an affordable android smartphone capable of 5G support.

It should be noted that a similar InvIT floated by RIL to house its vast telecom tower assets had helped RIL raise a whopping Rs 25,215 crore last year from Canadian Brookfield Asset Management.

Ambani led RIL has already raised an unprecedented sum of more than $20 billion through minority stake sales in his ambitious Jio Platforms venture in record time in recent months, attracting landmark sovereign wealth funds, technology giants and private equity titans including the likes of Intel, Qualcomm, Facebook, ADIA, Mubadala, KKR, General Atlantic and several more.