RIL-WhatsApp may turn Jio into a super app like China’s WeChat: Fitch Ratings

How do you see private equity companies such as Silver Lake picking stake in the Jio platform? How do you see Jio platform overall as an asset?
The deal with Silver Lake of $750 million, Facebook’s deal of $5.7 billion along with rights issue are going to strengthen the balance sheet for Reliance. We have rated Reliance local currency IDR rating at BBB flat with a positive outlook and we had said that if promoter interest, debt flow EBITDA and the leverage of the company improves to below 1.5x, then we may have to relook at things.

Jio I think is a platform which is going to become quite an essential platform for an average Indian consumer. They are combining millions of kirana shops in the platforms; WhatsApp which also had an agreement with the Jio platform has about 400 million users already in India and we have seen 90 million users at Reliance. I think what seems to us is that they have a plan to combine Jio platform with WhatsApp and make it a super app. In many countries like China, the usage is much more comfortable and more attractive towards the super app like WeChat where they can do transactions, they can transfer money, pay their bills and also on a real time basis chat with friends and also the vendors which are supplying business and services.