India's Jio Platforms Plans Up to $3.2 Billion IPO, Potentially the Country's Largest

Jio Platforms, the digital arm of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's conglomerate Reliance Industries, plans an initial public offering (IPO) that seeks to raise up to $3.2 billion. It could be the largest IPO India has seen, and it will show how much appetite public markets have for a company that drew more than $20 billion from global investors, including Google and Meta, in 2020.

In a stock exchange filing on Wednesday, Reliance Industries said Jio had set a price band of ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 per share (about $11.19–$11.76) for up to 270 million new shares. Subscription opens on October 21 and closes on October 23, while bidding by anchor investors is scheduled for October 19.

Valuation and the previous record

At the top of the price band, Jio would be valued at roughly ₹10.3 trillion (about $108.3 billion), based on the number of shares expected to be outstanding after the offering. In 2020 its valuation was up to ₹4.91 trillion (about $65 billion at the time). Meta, then called Facebook, invested $5.7 billion, and Google committed $4.5 billion.

The offering would surpass the 2024 IPO of Hyundai Motor India, worth ₹278.7 billion ($3.3 billion at the time) and the country's largest so far, even if Jio's shares are priced at the bottom of the range.

The business

Jio launched in 2016 and has become India's largest telecom operator, with more than 524 million subscribers as of March 31, ahead of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and state-owned BSNL. It first attracted customers with free data and cheap plans, though its prices are now comparable with rivals'. The company has also expanded into broadband, cloud services and other digital businesses.

In the quarter ended June, revenue rose nearly 12% year on year to ₹391.7 billion (about $4.1 billion), and net profit grew 9% to ₹77.6 billion (around $816 million).

Use of proceeds

Shares worth up to ₹25 billion (about $263 million) are reserved for eligible Reliance Industries shareholders, and another ₹5 billion ($53 million) for employees, who will get a discount of ₹54 per share. Up to ₹275 billion ($2.9 billion) of the proceeds will go toward repaying debt at telecom subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm, with the rest earmarked for general corporate purposes.

Tension with Musk

The IPO comes as Elon Musk has intensified his criticism of Ambani, accusing him of trying to keep Starlink out of India. The accusation follows by more than a year the deals in which Jio and rival Airtel agreed with Musk's SpaceX to distribute Starlink satellite internet in India, subject to regulatory approval. Indian authorities have rejected Musk's claims.