The Jio Platforms IPO opens for bidding on Wednesday, October 21, and is set to be India’s biggest IPO on record. Mukesh Ambani’s telecom and digital arm plans to raise up to ₹30,213 crore (about £2.4bn) by selling as many as 270 million new shares at ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 each. Bidding closes on Friday, October 23. At the top of the range, Jio would be valued at ₹10.3 trillion, or roughly £81bn.
- Record size: At the top price, the offer is about 8% bigger than Hyundai Motor India’s ₹27,858.75 crore listing in 2024. Even at the ₹1,065 floor, it would raise about ₹28,755 crore.
- Anchor investors: 212 funds signed up on Monday, including BlackRock, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Fidelity, Schroders, JP Morgan Asset Management, Franklin Templeton, Invesco and Prudential.
- Use of money: The sale consists only of new shares, and the proceeds are mainly meant to repay debt at Reliance Jio Infocomm.
- Staff offer: Reliance is urging its 400,000-plus employees to buy, with a discount of ₹54 a share.
At the top price, Jio would become India’s fourth-largest listed company, behind Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and HDFC Bank. That is more than double the ₹4.9 trillion valuation from 2020, when Meta and Google invested. Still, the price falls well short of the £110bn-plus expected when Jio filed its draft prospectus in the summer.
The timing is also tough. India’s Nifty 50 index has fallen more than 12% this year. With anchor investors already in, the sale will test how much appetite remains for a large, richly priced listing. Akash Ambani, the eldest son of Mukesh Ambani, leads Jio, which offers low-cost broadband to millions of Indians.
Investors can bid from Wednesday until Friday’s close. The final issue price will be set within the band once book-building ends, and allotment and listing will follow. Demand for the Jio Platforms IPO over those three days will show whether India’s biggest IPO can win over buyers despite the weak market.
