Ten years after it set off a price war in Indian telecom, Jio Platforms opens its ₹30,213 crore IPO to the public today. Big institutions have already shown strong interest. On October 19, they bid more than ₹2.5 lakh crore for a ₹8,109.85 crore anchor allotment, over 30 times the amount on offer.

The pricing, however, reflects how much the market has changed. Jio is coming to market at a lower valuation than its nearest rival, Bharti Airtel.

  • Bidding opens: Wednesday, October 21
  • Bidding closes: Friday, October 23
  • Allotment: likely Monday, October 26
  • Listing: Wednesday, October 28, on BSE and NSE
  • Price band: ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 per share (₹10 face value)
  • Lot size: 12 shares, a minimum bid of ₹13,428 at the top of the band
  • Retail quota: at least 35% of the net offer
  • Reliance shareholder quota: up to ₹2,500 crore
  • Employee quota: up to ₹500 crore

All 27 crore shares on offer are newly issued, so no existing shareholder is selling. Reliance Industries will keep its majority stake. This is the Reliance group’s first IPO in almost 20 years.

The anchor book allotted 7.24 crore shares at ₹1,119 each to 212 investors. The largest allocations were:

  • Life Insurance Corporation of India: ₹499.98 crore
  • New World Fund Inc: ₹486.27 crore
  • Government of Singapore: ₹340.93 crore
  • SBI Focused Fund: ₹315 crore
  • BNP Paribas Financial Markets (ODI): ₹303.25 crore

Domestic mutual funds took 34.34% of the anchor book, worth ₹2,784.96 crore. Global investors in the book included BlackRock, Capital Group, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, Schroders, JPMorgan Asset Management, Franklin Templeton and Janus Henderson.

On October 20, Jio shares traded at a grey market premium of about ₹245. That points to a listing price near ₹1,364, about 21.9% above the upper band. Grey market prices are unofficial and can change before listing.

At the top of the band, Jio is valued at about ₹10.3 lakh crore, or $107 billion. Bharti Airtel is worth about $123 billion. Jio is larger on almost every operating measure, but Airtel earns more from each customer:

  • Average revenue per user (June quarter): Airtel ₹264, Jio ₹216
  • EBITDA margin: Airtel 57.4%, Jio 53.3%
  • Trailing price-to-earnings: Airtel almost 37 times, Jio 33.2 times

According to data compiled by Bloomberg, Jio has trailed Airtel on revenue per user for seven years in a row. Airtel shifted towards higher-paying customers from 2019, while Jio kept adding users.

In a note dated October 10, Nomura’s Bineet Banka and Abhishek Bhandari wrote that after listing, Jio “will likely need to demonstrate growth to public shareholders.”

  • FY26 revenue from operations: ₹1.46 lakh crore, up from ₹1.28 lakh crore
  • Net profit: ₹30,049 crore, up from ₹26,109 crore
  • EBITDA: ₹76,255 crore, up from ₹64,170 crore
  • Net debt to EBITDA: 0.36x in FY26, down from 0.88x in FY24

Up to ₹27,500 crore of the proceeds will go towards repaying debt at Reliance Jio Infocomm. That would give Jio more room to invest as it waits for regulators to rule on its satellite application, alongside Elon Musk’s Starlink.

Managing Director Akash Ambani says Jio’s next phase of growth will come from technology, AI and cloud computing. “There is no either-or at Jio: the network is our technology,” he told PTI. He said about 26 crore Indians still use 2G phones and only about 21% of households have fixed broadband.

On tariffs, Ambani said Jio “always” has the ability to raise prices, but its priority is to offer customers more services.

At its IPO valuation, Jio would become India’s fourth most valuable listed company, behind Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and HDFC Bank. According to ET Intelligence data, the Reliance group’s combined market value would rise to about ₹28.5 lakh crore. That would put it ahead of the Tata Group’s ₹25.5 lakh crore and make Reliance India’s most valuable business group.

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