Jio Platforms sets terms for potential $3.2 billion Indian IPO
Jio sets price band for a major market debut
Jio Platforms, the digital arm of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, is seeking to raise as much as $3.2 billion in an initial public offering that could become India’s largest. Reliance said in a stock exchange filing that Jio has set a price band of ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 per share for up to 270 million new shares.
The subscription period is scheduled to open on October 21 and close on October 23. Anchor investors are due to bid on October 19. At the upper end of the range, the offering would value Jio at about ₹10.3 trillion, or roughly $108.3 billion, based on the expected post-offering share count.
Even at the lower end of the band, the transaction is set to exceed Hyundai Motor India’s ₹278.7 billion offering in 2024, which was the country’s largest to date. The IPO therefore gives public investors a direct test of the valuation attached to one of India’s largest digital and telecommunications businesses.
From telecom challenger to digital platform
Jio launched in 2016 and built its initial customer base with free data and low-priced plans. Its tariffs are now comparable with those of rivals, but it remains India’s largest telecom operator, with more than 524 million subscribers as of March 31. Its competitors include Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and state-owned BSNL.
The company has also extended beyond mobile services into broadband, cloud services and other digital businesses. That broader operating footprint is central to the public-market case for Jio, which attracted more than $20 billion from global investors in 2020. Meta, then known as Facebook, invested $5.7 billion, while Google committed $4.5 billion.
The expansion of Jio’s services is also reflected in Jio’s AI expansion across consumer services, where its push to place AI in calls, apps and the home illustrates the company’s wider digital-business ambition. The IPO prospectus provides a current financial view: revenue for the quarter ended June rose nearly 12% year on year to ₹391.7 billion, while net profit increased 9% to ₹77.6 billion.
Proceeds are largely earmarked for debt repayment
Jio plans to use up to ₹275 billion of the offering proceeds to repay debt at its telecom subsidiary, Reliance Jio Infocomm. Remaining funds are designated for general corporate purposes. The company has also reserved shares worth up to ₹25 billion for eligible Reliance Industries shareholders and ₹5 billion for employees, who will receive a ₹54-per-share discount.
The transaction arrives amid a separate public dispute involving Elon Musk’s claims that Ambani is trying to keep Starlink out of India. Jio and Bharti Airtel signed agreements with SpaceX more than a year ago to distribute Starlink satellite internet in India, subject to regulatory approvals, and Indian authorities have rejected Musk’s allegations.
For businesses following India’s digital economy, Jio’s filing makes the allocation of fresh capital particularly relevant: the deal pairs a large subscriber base and expanding service portfolio with a stated priority of reducing telecom-subsidiary debt.