Jio spins off tower, fibre infrastructure units to trusts

Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio) has taken another step towards monetising its fibre and tower assets by transferring control of the infrastructure to two new Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs), as it looks to raise funds to reduce its debts. Parent company Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) announced earlier this week that Jio had completed the transfer of its fibre-optic infrastructure to a new company, Jio Digital Fibre Private Limited (JDFPL), whilst its telecom towers had been spun off to Reliance Jio Infratel Private Limited (RJIPL) on 31 March. As part of the asset transfer, JDFPL allotted equity shares for a value of INR5 billion (USD72.2 million) to Jio’s shareholders and RJIPL allotted equity shares worth INR2 billion to Jio. Reliance Industries Investment and Holdings Limited (RIHL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIL, then went on to establish InvITs with RIL as sponsor: Digital Fibre Infrastructure Trust and Tower Infrastructure Trust. The former then acquired 51% of the equity share capital of JDFPL for INR2.63 billion, and the latter purchased 51% of RJIPL for INR1.10 billion.