New Delhi: Gearing up for the launch of its low-cost 4G services, RIL's telecom arm Reliance Jio Infocomm plans to further raise Rs 1,000 crore through Non-Convertible Debentures to fund its business expansion. "...pursuant to the approval of the Board of Directors and Shareholders, the Company proposes to issue Secured Redeemable Non-Convertible Debentures aggregating up to Rs 1,000 crore, on private placement basis," Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) said in a regulatory statement on July 31.
On Thursday, the company had made an announcement to raise Rs 3,500 crore through debentures. With the latest announcement, the cumulative debt raised by company this fiscal has reached around Rs 9,000 crore.
In May, the company had raised USD 750 million or about Rs 4,500 from consortium backed by Korea Trade Insurance Corporation to buy telecom equipment from Samsung Electronics and Ace Technologies. RJIL did not share any further details about the fresh debt that it plans to raise. RIL has already invested over Rs 1 lakh crore in RJIL.
The company has plans to offer 4G service at monthly charges of Rs 300-500 and start commercial service with 4G mobile phones priced as low as Rs 4,000 a unit. The company, which has pan-India permit for 4G service, is testing its networks and will soon start a beta programme before the commercial launch in December.
The company is now present in all 29 states of India, with a direct physical presence in nearly 18,000 cities and towns of the country and covers over one lakh villages. In addition, RJIL has also built an optical fibre network comprising nearly 250,000 route kilometres of fibre optics.
Over the next three years, Jio has plans to more than double its present optical fibre network and connect over one million homes by April 2016.
