SUMMARY
Reliance Jio currently owns 32.56% market share, followed by Vodafone Idea’s 28.45% share
Reliance became the largest telecom provider in November, surpassing Vodafone Idea
Meanwhile, it may raise investment from Saudi Arabia’s wealth fund
After raising investments of over INR 60,596.37 Cr in the last three weeks, Reliance Jio has added another feather to its cap. According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) report, Reliance Jio added over 6.55 Mn mobile phone users in January 2020, taking the total users to 376 Mn.
Notably, in the recent Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) filings of May, Reliance Jio has highlighted that it has over 388 Mn. Hinting that the telecom service provider has registered a hike in the number of subscribers between February to May 2020.
The TRAI report, published on May 8, highlighted that Reliance Jio is followed by state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL ) with an addition of 1.22 Mn subscribers and Bharti Airtel’s 854K users. Meanwhile, Reliance Communications, another brand of Reliance Industries, added 352 subscribers.
Besides these players, both Vodafone Idea and state-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) have lost 3.6 Mn and 5K users, respectively. With this, Reliance Jio has continued to maintain its lead with 32.56% market share, followed by Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel in a neck-to-neck competition with 28.45% and 28.38% market share, respectively.
Reliance Jio became the largest telecom service provider in India by market share in November 2019, TRAI report published in January 2020 highlighted. The report elaborated that Reliance Jio’s market share increased to 32.4% from 30.76% in October.
Meanwhile, Vodafone-Idea lost its lead from 31.49% in October to 29.12% in November. In September, Vodafone-Idea had 31.73% of the market. On the other hand, Bharti Airtel continued holding the third spot with 28.35% of the market.
The report comes at a time when Reliance Jio is on a spree of fundraising. Over the last three weeks, the company has raised over INR 60,596.37 Cr, of which Facebook has invested INR 43,574 Cr ($5.7 Bn) for 9.99% stake, Silver Lake has invested INR 5,655 Cr and Vista Equity Partners has invested INR 11,367 Cr for 2.32% stake.
Some reports also suggest that Saudi Arabia’s $320 Bn sovereign wealth fund may invest in Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio too.
In terms of stakeholders, Reliance Industries Limited is the biggest stakeholder in Reliance Jio, followed by Facebook in second position and Vista Equity Partner in third. The company is looking to use this funding to boost inclusive and rapid digitisation. The company believes that comprehensive digitisation will prove to be a vital component to revitalise the Indian economy.
