RIL to invest another Rs 30,000 crore into Jio Infocomm

Reliance Industries is planning to invest a sum of Rs. 30,000 crore into Reliance Jio Infocomm to further its development and improve its signal strength.

The company in its board meeting held earlier on Friday decided to invest another Rs. 30,000 crore into its telecom unit and sell 600 crore preference shares to raise the amount. These preference shares will be sold through a rights issue and will be nine percent non-cumulative optionally convertible (OCPS) available at Rs. 50 each including a premium of Rs. 40.

RIL had already invested Rs. 1.71 lakh crore while setting up its telecom venture Jio Infocomm. Ever since its launch on September 5, 2016, Jio has amassed more than 70 million users, owing to its free voice calls and data plans. The subscriber addition rate is said to be one of the highest, thereby, raising Rs. 30,000 crore last year and rights issue in two tranches in January and September.

The telecom major, however, has been suffering from lack of network coverage and call drop, which it now looks to overcome with the new investment.

The company's board has forwarded a statement in this regard to the National Stock Exchange.

RIL is also expected to launch Jio's VoLTE feature phones with prices staring at Rs 999.