Reliance Industries to Sell Jio Assets

Brookfield Asset Management, one of the words top infrastructure and private equity investors, is in talks to buy shares in Reliance Jio’s telecom towers and fiber assets valued around Rs 1.07 Lakh Crores.

Jio works with a network of over 2.2 lakh towers, including third party ones and around three lakh route kilometer of optic fiber, inserving a subscriber base fast approaching 300 million.

Brookfield had purchased the loss-making East west Pipeline- a 1400km pipeline connecting Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh to Bharuch in Gujarat- an entity owned by Mukesh Ambani and family for $2 billion last year.

“Jio plans to take certain infrastructure assets as out of the balance sheet as part of the deleveraging exercise.it is exploring a deal with Brookfield to spin off assets which have the ability to carry huge debt when backed by the longterm operating agreement,” a person familiar with this matter aided.

Jio’s infra assets could be valued anywhere between $12-15 billion depending on how it consolidates towers spread between its own, third party and those of the bankrupt Reliance Communication.

If the transaction with a Brookfield gets completed, it will be a rare private equity deal within the broader RIL. In the past, the group has had a joint venture with NewYork based DE Shaw for financial assistance.