Hemang Jani, an equity strategist at Mumbai-based Motilal Oswal Finance Services, said the development of Jio Platforms would be interesting to watch “because of the ecosystem Reliance is going to build”.

“From what we sense, total market size could be more than US$5 billion, realigning sectors like digital payments, retail, commerce, content and advertising,” he said.

As India’s largest mobile network operator, Jio’s dominance in the domestic telecoms market and potential to build other powerful ecosystems around this network are two of the main lures for investors, Jani said.

Reliance launches JioMart online grocery service in challenge to Amazon and Walmart

Its presence across rapidly emerging sectors and ability to cross-sell aligned services to millions of subscribers are also among the reasons global investors are so keen, according to Sanchit Vir Gogia, founder and CEO of independent advisory firm Greyhound Research.

While the recent mega investments have drawn the spotlight, parent company Reliance began an acquisition spree to buy smaller firms some years ago to build expertise in newer technologies from artificial intelligence to blockchain – with the aim of creating a digital business that wields power in everything from online retail to streamed entertainment and internet payments.

Sandip Sabharwal, an independent investment adviser who is familiar with Reliance’s operations, said most investors would be “banking on” Ambani to “leverage Jio mobile network’s dominance to gain traction into other e-marketplaces”.

“The only established strength of Jio Platforms is the telecom network as of now,” he said. “Except that, it is essentially a bet on the ability of the company”, implying faith in Ambani’s business acumen.

Other investors to grab a stake of the Reliance digital unit include private equity firms Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic and KKR, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign fund manager Mubadala and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

The Jio Platforms deals – which are subject to regulatory approval, with Facebook’s investment in particular expected to come under close scrutiny – along with a US$7 billion share sale, will help Reliance meet its target of paying off US$21.4 billion of net debt by the end of the year, according to the company.

Still, the global coronavirus pandemic is poised to put India on track for a sharp economic contraction, making growing digital sales a challenge amid slowing consumer spending, even as Jio Platforms is being readied for a share sale.

Reliance is also preparing the business for an initial public offering overseas, people with knowledge of the matter said last month. Meanwhile, a crash in oil prices caused uncertainty in negotiations to sell an estimated US$15 billion stake in the conglomerate’s oil and chemicals division to Saudi Aramco as part of its bid to pay down its formidable debt pile, which stood at more than $20 billion as of March last year. Reliance recently said the Aramco talks are progressing.

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The conglomerate, which began as a textile business in the 1960s, has expanded and diversified over the decades.

Its Jio mobile network was launched in September 2016 and raced ahead to become India’s largest operator within three years, amassing more than 387 million subscribers as it forced out several rivals and drove consolidation in the sector with free voice services and cut-price data.

Underscoring this goal is the US$46.7 billion Reliance invested into Jio between 2014 and 2019 – more than 65 per cent of its total spending over that period. Its mainstay petrochemical business, meanwhile, received less than one-third of total investments.

Additional reporting by Reuters, Bloomberg