Jio Platforms, backed by Meta Platforms and Google, is launching what could be India's biggest-ever initial public offering, targeting a valuation of 10.3 trillion rupees (£81bn) when it floats from Wednesday. The Mumbai-based low-cost broadband provider aims to raise up to 302 billion rupees (£2.4bn) through the share sale, according to a stock exchange filing from its parent company Reliance Industries.
Jio, established a decade ago as a subsidiary of billionaire Mukesh Ambani's conglomerate Reliance Industries and led by his oldest son Akash Ambani, serves millions of Indians with affordable internet connectivity. If the top valuation is achieved, Jio would rank as India's fourth-largest company by value, behind Reliance Industries itself, Bharti Airtel and HDFC Bank. The valuation would more than double the company's 4.9 trillion rupee worth in 2020, when Meta and Google made their investments.
Reliance Industries set a price range of 1,065 to 1,119 rupees per share for the IPO, with up to 270 million new shares on offer. The company secured 212 anchor investors on Monday before the public offering, including major global fund managers such as BlackRock, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Fidelity Investments, Schroders, JP Morgan Asset Management, Franklin Templeton, Invesco and Prudential. Retail investors will be offered shares from Wednesday, with the IPO set to close on Friday.
The offering takes place amid a broader slowdown in India's stock market, with the blue chip Nifty 50 index down more than 12% this year. The targeted valuation also represents a significant retreat from initial expectations of more than £110bn when the telecoms group published a draft prospectus in the summer. Reliance Industries has been encouraging its 400,000-plus employees to participate by offering them a 54 rupees discount per share.
Isha Ambani, Jio's board director and sister to Akash, explained the company's origins to investors last week. She described how she and her brother struggled with poor connectivity when they returned to India on a university break around 2009-10, with Isha unable to submit a college assignment online due to internet failures. This experience sparked conversations about why India should lag behind in digital technology, leading Akash to pursue creating a digital technology platform company.
For savers and investors in India, the IPO offers an opportunity to own shares in a major telecoms operator, though at a significantly lower valuation than initially anticipated and during a period of stock market weakness.