Reliance Jio raises Rs 32.5 bn as samurai term loan from Japanese banks

Telecom operator Reliance Jio has signed an agreement to raise about Rs 32.5 billion (Rs 3,250 crore) as samurai term loan from Japan-based banks.

"Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited has signed an approximately JPY 53.5 billion samurai term loan with 7 year bullet maturity. The facility is guaranteed by Reliance Industries Limited and will be used for funding RJIL's ongoing capital expenditure," RJIL said in a late night statement on Friday. 

At an exchange rate of 60 paise per Japanese yen, the loan value comes to around Rs 32.48 billion (Rs 3,248 crore).

This deal represents the largest samurai loan (low interest loans from Japanese investors) for an Asian corporate, the statement said.

"The facility has been fully underwritten by Mizuho Bank, Ltd, MUFG Bank, Ltd and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Singapore Branch and will be shortly launched into syndication," RJIL said.

Last month, the Reliance Jio board had approved raising of around Rs 200 billion (Rs 20,000 crore) in debt. The company has invested over Rs 2 trillion (Rs 2 lakh crore) in the mobile business, which has garnered over 168 million customers.

The Mukesh Ambani firm has also signed agreement to buy mobile business assets of Reliance Communications -- the company led by his younger brother Anil Ambani -- for around Rs 250 billion (Rs 25,000 crore).

The 4G mobile service provider RJIL said that the network of the company is future ready and can be easily upgraded to support even more data, as technologies advance on to 5G, 6G, and beyond.

"Jio will bring transformational changes in the Indian digital services space to enable the vision of Digital India for 1.2 billion Indians and propel India into global leadership in digital economy," the statement said.