Ambani’s Jio seeks to raise $3.2B in what could be India’s biggest IPO
Jio plans to use most of its IPO proceeds to repay debt as it expands beyond telecom.
Key points
- Jio Platforms seeks up to $3.2 billion in what could be India's biggest IPO.
- Price band set at ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 per share for 270 million new shares.
- Subscription opens October 21 and closes October 23, with anchor bidding October 19.
Jio Platforms, the digital arm of Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries, is seeking to raise as much as $3.2 billion in what could be India's biggest initial public offering. The listing will test public-market appetite for a company that attracted more than $20 billion from global investors, including Google and Meta in 2020.
In a stock exchange filing on Wednesday, Reliance Industries said Jio set a price band of ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 per share for the offering of up to 270 million new shares. The IPO opens for subscription on October 21 and closes on October 23, with anchor investor bidding on October 19.
Valuation and past funding
At the upper end of the price band, the IPO would value Jio at about ₹10.3 trillion, or around $108.3 billion, based on shares expected to be outstanding after the offering. In 2020, Jio was valued at up to ₹4.91 trillion, about $65 billion at the time, when Meta invested $5.7 billion and Google committed $4.5 billion.
The IPO is set to overtake Hyundai Motor India's ₹278.7 billion offering in 2024, the country's biggest to date, even if shares are priced at the lower end of the range.
Jio's IPO comes as Elon Musk has stepped up his criticism of Ambani, accusing him of trying to keep Starlink out of India.
— TechCrunch
Financials and proceeds
In the quarter ended June, Jio's revenue rose nearly 12% from a year earlier to ₹391.7 billion, while net profit climbed 9% to ₹77.6 billion, according to its IPO prospectus. Jio has set aside shares worth up to ₹25 billion for eligible Reliance Industries shareholders and another ₹5 billion for employees, who will receive a discount of ₹54 per share.
Of the IPO proceeds, Jio plans to use up to ₹275 billion to repay debt at its telecom subsidiary, Reliance Jio Infocomm, with the remaining proceeds going toward general corporate purposes.
