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Digital Fibre Infrastructure Trust, a trust that holds all the fibre assets of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), is planning to raise nearly ₹39,706 crore through borrowings and stake sales to other units of the group company. The investors will be inducted into the trust in the coming weeks.
The trust owns a 51 per cent stake in an Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT) in which Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani-controlled RIL holds a 48.44 per cent stake.
The trust now proposes to make an initial offer of its units totalling ₹14,706 crore and avail a ₹25,000 crore loan from two RIL group companies, increasing the total amount being raised to ₹39,706 crore.
The trust will not list the units on stock exchanges.
Jio Digital Fibre will use this 30-year loan from the InvIT to repay debt taken from 10 banks including State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank, RIL and Reliance Ventures Ltd.
A part of the fund raised will be used to meet issue related expenses of about ₹5.1 crore, it said.
The trust was settled vide a deed dated January 31, 2019, with Reliance Industrial Investments & Holdings Ltd (RIIHL) as the settlor and the sponsor and Axis Trustee Services Ltd as the trustee. Later in March, the trust was registered as an infrastructure investment trust under the SEBI InvIT regulations.
RIIHL will be allotted 15 per cent of the units on a post-issue basis, which will be locked in for three years.
This follows a deal with Brookfield in July last year, wherein the Canadian asset manager had agreed to pay ₹25,215 crore to take control of RJio’s tower assets.
Read the story: Brookfield pays ₹25,215 crore to take control of RJio’s tower assets
RJio’s tower assets were transferred to a special purpose vehicle — Reliance Jio Infratel Pvt Ltd (RJIPL). Separately, a tower infrastructure trust was registered, sponsored by RIIH.
The tower InvIT held 51 per cent stake in RJIPL and the balance 49 per cent was held by RIL. Post the deal with Brookfield, the stake held by RIL in RJIPL will be transferred to the tower InvIT. All units of the InvIT will be owned by Brookfield only.
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