According to the Sebi filing, DFIT will eventually lend the entire Rs 39,706 crore to Jio Digital Fibre, which will use it to repay debt, including suppliers’ credit. The fibre optic unit, earlier a part of RIL’s telecom arm, Reliance Jio Infcomm, has a debt of Rs 87,296.3 crore, including suppliers’ credit.

While “DFIT’s filing document with Sebi highlights no large external investor for now, there is always the possibility of new external investors investing in the fibre trust at a later date,” JP Morgan said in a report.

HDFC Bank and SBI will have a larger share of the Rs 25,000 crore debt-raising exercise, said bank executives. The term loans could have maturities running into 12 or 15 years, they said, adding that the banks have committed to lend in their individual capacity without the likelihood of any syndication arrangement.

“We have sought assurance on repayments in these uncertain times and we believe a triple-A rated entity like RIL can offer that,” said the senior executive of a large bank that has extended a credit line to the fibre InvIT.

Jio Digital Fibre owns and operates a pan-India operational optic fibre cable network of approximately 17.37 million fibre pairs per kilometre (FPKM) as of March 31, 2020. https://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com