Mukesh Ambani is going to make one of the biggest offshore debt issues to raise $2.25 billion for Reliance Jio

Reliance Industries is looking forward to raise $2.25 billion as it is hoping to replace existing high-cost borrowings and also create a reserve fund for its aggressive expansion strategy in telecom.

Reportedly, in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, about 10-12 investment bankers are involved and marketing roadshows are expected to start soon.

ET reported the funds are expected to be raised through external commercial borrowings (ECBs) through syndicated loan. Securities may be priced 90-100 basis points over the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor). The US 12-months Libor is now at 1.70 per cent. A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.

Last year, RIL raised nearly Rs 30,000 crore through a rights issue in two parts, in January and September. Recently, the company has announced that it would raise another Rs 30,000 crore through a rights issue of optionally convertible preference shares to invest in Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom unit.

"We expect a lot of action from Indian corporates, especially the larger ones, as the offshore debt market is much more attractive now. We don't know what will happen after a month, when Trump takes over and makes tough decisions. Reliance's big move could be a fresh debt or to refinance an existing debt with a cheaper one, but definitely the process is on the fast track,” a person working on the fund-raising plan, told ET.

The company, while announcing its third-quarter earnings earlier this month, said that it is planning to invest another $4.4 billion to enhance network capacity as it competes with Bharti Airtel and Vodafone. It also said that Reliance Jio has been adding about 6 lakh users per day and has about 7.2 crore subscribers after having launched commercial operations four months ago.