Reliance Industries’ digital and telecom arm Jio Platforms has opened its record $3.2 billion initial public offering for public subscription today, in what is set to become the biggest share sale in Indian market history. The issue carries a price band of ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 per share and stays open for three trading days.
The offering comes after a blockbuster anchor book in which 212 institutional investors were allotted shares worth ₹8,109.85 crore, or roughly $853.3 million, at the top end of the price band. Reuters reported that the anchor quota was subscribed more than 30 times over, with bids of about $25 billion pouring in, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
Marquee investors line up
Among the marquee names in the anchor book are the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, BlackRock and Fidelity, Reliance said, along with Singapore’s GIC, LIC, BNP Paribas, JPMorgan and HDFC Bank. LIC secured the largest allocation at nearly ₹500 crore. Global investment houses including Capital Group, T. Rowe Price, Schroders, Franklin Templeton and Janus Henderson also participated, underscoring the depth of global appetite for the issue.
The share sale is entirely a fresh issuance of around 27 crore shares, with no offer-for-sale component. According to the company’s filings, the proceeds will be used mainly to repay debt taken on by its material subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm, along with general corporate purposes. Trading on the NSE and BSE is expected later this month, as per the prospectus.
A potential record for Indian markets
A fully subscribed offering would surpass the current Indian record held by Hyundai Motor India’s ₹278.7 billion IPO, making Jio the country’s largest listing in rupee terms. The issue is the first from the Reliance group since Reliance Petroleum in 2006, and it follows the recent listing of the National Stock Exchange of India — a sign of India’s strong economic growth story drawing sustained investor interest.
Jio disrupted India’s telecom market in 2016 with free voice calls and cheap data, and has since grown into the country’s largest mobile operator with more than 500 million subscribers, competing with Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. Led by Akash Ambani, the business now spans fixed broadband, cloud, entertainment, enterprise technology and AI — a spread that has added new consumer services well beyond mobile.
What the listing means
Analysts view the listing as a test of what global investors will pay for Jio’s scale and its push into cloud and artificial intelligence. Indian equities were poised for a positive start as the issue opened, with GIFT Nifty futures indicating gains after a local market holiday, though heavyweight lenders have warned of tightening net interest margins.
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