Jio Platforms now more valuable than rest of RIL businesses put together

At Wednesday’s price, RIL’s market capitalisation stood at Rs 8.64 trillion. This means, the other businesses are being valued by the Street at Rs 4.28 trillion

Reliance Industries’ (RIL’s) deal with Facebook to sell 9.99 per cent in Jio Platforms has two messages for the oil to telecom major’s shareholders. The key one is that Jio Platforms is now more valuable than all other businesses of RIL put together, including refining, petrochemicals and retail.

Consider this: Facebook is buying 9.99 per cent stake in Jio Platforms, a 100 per cent subsidiary of RIL, for Rs 43,574 crore. This translates into a market/equity value of Rs 4.36 trillion for Jio Platforms. RIL’s stock gained over 10 per cent after the deal was announced. At Wednesday’s price, RIL’s market capitalisation stood at Rs 8.64 trillion. This means, the other businesses are being valued by the Street at Rs 4.28 trillion.

ALSO READ: Why Facebook is spending billions for a minority stake in Reliance Jio

The other message is that the deal has kick-started the monetisation of digital assets and will help RIL reduce debt, create an incremental revenue stream and could lead to higher valuations for its consumer facing verticals, especially Reliance Retail. The news of falling leverage levels is positive as it came at a time when its core oil and gas vertical was facing major headwinds because of the collapse of crude oil prices. This had raised concerns over the completion of the deal with Aramco, wherein the world’s biggest oil producer was looking at picking up 20 per cent stake in RIL’s chemical and refining business in a deal valued at $15 billion. With the fresh investment from Facebook, leverage concerns have receded…

Coronavirus can be controlled: Over 68,000 have recovered so far globally

Over 50,000 people have recovered in China’s Hubei province, which is the worst-hit; Iran has seen over 2,900 recoveries

The Coronavirus outbreak has taken the world by a storm, with governments globally scrambling to control the outbreak, which has so far infected over 125,000 people and killed more than 4,500 across 114 countries. Even as the virus forces countries to quarantine citizens, lock down borders and suspend travels, the number of recoveries across the world so far has been 68,000, according to data collated by the Johns Hopkins University & Medicine.

The data show that over 50,000 people have recovered in China’s Hubei province alone. Hubei has been the most affected by the outbreak. Iran, also affected badly and facing difficulties owing to several US sanctions and poor medical facilities, has seen over 2,900 recoveries so far. The country has also reported over 400 deaths, the most after China and Italy.

While over 90 per cent of the cases are confined to four countries – China, South Korea, Italy and Iran – the first two have lately seen a significant drop in new Covid-19 cases. The University data show that in Italy 1,045 of the 12,462 reported cases have recovered, while over 800 have died. The mortality rate among recorded cases in Italy is 6.6 per cent, against 2-2.5 per cent in China. The region around Milan in northern Italy has been the worst hit by the virus.

Indian govt springs into action amid spurt in cases: The situation in India, which has seen a spurt in positive Coronavirus cases since last week, is different. The number of total Coronavirus cases in the country on Thursday rose to 74, with 14 fresh cases being reported. Nine new cases were reported in Maharashtra, and one each in Delhi, Ladakh, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has suspended all tourist and medical visas until April 15, there have been only four recoveries in the country so far.

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