MUMBAI: Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio) is planning to raise Rs 200 billion through a rights issue of OCPS (optionally convertible preference shares). Jio will raise the amount through the rights issue of shares to shareholders as Reliance Industries' wholly-owned subsidiary is reading for the next phase of expansion.
RIL is now expected to reveal Jio's next significant move - an inexpensive 4G feature phone supporting Voice over LTE (VoLTE) technology.
The OCPS fund-raising would take the total raised by Jio through this route to around Rs 900 billion in the last two years. In the March quarter, Jio's capital expenditure was Rs 180 billion, and this would stay the same in the subsequent three-month period, the company stated. Jio pocketed around 117 million users, or around nine per cent active subscriber market share as of May end, according to TRAI data.
RIL has already invested around Rs 2000 billion in Jio, which started commercial operations in September 2016.
To take on competition, incumbent operators have also ramped up investments. As in March 2017, Bharti Airtel, Idea and Vodafone India respectively invested Rs 2300 billion, Rs 1250 billion and Rs 1350 billion.
