According to people familiar with the matter, India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries is working on a bid for T-Mobile Netherlands. Speaking on anonymity, people close with the matter confirmed that the Indian giant is operating with an adviser to evaluate the bid for the Dutch subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG. It is still not confirmed whether Reliance will decide to proceed with the formal offer, as there is no official statement from both the companies regarding this bid. While Deutsche Telekom AG declined to comment, Reliance’s representative was not immediately able to comment on the matter.
Deutsche Telekom who owns ‘T-Mobile’ is seeking about $5.9 billion from the market. According to a report published by Bloomberg news, it has attracted interest from some prominent private equity funds like Apollo Global management, BC Partners and Providence Equity Partners. In May, Tele2 who holds a 25% share in T-Mobile confirmed that the company planned to sell its shareholding of ‘T-Mobile’. Deutsche is currently working with the investment firm Morgan Stanley.
Reliance, which has given a return of 4500 per cent to its investors during the last 19 years, has been working on expanding its business to different parts of the world. The reliance’s portfolio includes energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, telecommunications, mass media and textiles. It is headquartered in Mumbai and is India’s largest company by market capitalization as well as revenue. In just 48 years, it has emerged as the largest exporter with access to markets of 108 countries. Recently, Paulson & Co. Inc. and Bill Gates announced an investment of 144million dollars in Ambri Inc. energy storage company in Massachusetts, USA. Reliance’s share is of 50million dollars out of 144.
Jio Platform which runs the Jio network in India is credited for revolutionizing the Indian 4G network space and is the single most reason why 1GB of data per day in your mobile phone is costing less than Rs 5 per day. Before Reliance Jio, the 4G data used to cost over Rs 250 for 1GB, now we have around 60GB for the same price, similarly, ‘T-Mobile’s’ main businesses include wireless services, smartphones, tablets and other mobile communication devices. It is the second-largest mobile company in the Netherland projecting the highest rate of growth in 2020. If everything goes well, Reliance Industries will gain control of underlying infrastructure through its telecommunication subsidiary which will offer steady long-term returns.
Read More: Jio could do to the world’s 5G market, what it did to India’s telecom market in 2016
Ever since Mr Mukesh Ambani came to the fore at Reliance Industries, the company has been going leaps and bounds in terms of growth. India’s fifth-ranked philanthropist is trying to transform Reliance from an economic conglomerate into a technology and e-commerce giant after revolutionizing Indian telecommunications space with high speed 4G internet. After the investment of Facebook and Google in Jio, if Reliance buys T-Mobile Netherlands, it will be the biggest foray into the European market.
