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Jio Platforms seeks up to $3.2 billion in what could be India's biggest IPO
Jio Platforms has set a price band of ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 a share for an offering of up to 270 million new shares, targeting as much as $3.2 billion in what would be India's largest listing to date. Most of the proceeds are earmarked for debt repayment as the Reliance unit pushes beyond telecom.
Reliance Industries disclosed the terms in a stock exchange filing, setting the subscription window for October 21 to October 23, with bidding by anchor investors scheduled for October 19. At the upper end of the proposed band, the offer would value Jio at about ₹10.3 trillion, or roughly $108.3 billion, based on the number of shares expected to be outstanding once the listing is complete.
The deal is set to overtake Hyundai Motor India's ₹278.7 billion offering in 2024, the country's largest to date, even if Jio's shares are priced at the lower end of the range.
The listing will test public-market appetite for a company that pulled in more than $20 billion from global investors in 2020, when Meta, then known as Facebook, invested $5.7 billion and Google committed $4.5 billion. Jio was valued at up to ₹4.91 trillion at the time, about $65 billion.
Jio has grown into India's largest telecom operator since launching in 2016, with more than 524 million subscribers as of March 31, ahead of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and state-owned BSNL.
The company plans to direct most of the IPO proceeds toward repaying debt as it expands beyond telecom.