Jio Platforms Listing: Shares Debut at 21% Premium to IPO Price
Jio Platforms listing: shares debuted at ₹1,358 on NSE and BSE, 21.36% above the ₹1,119 issue price, after India’s biggest IPO was bid 22 times.
The Jio Platforms listing on Wednesday saw shares debut at ₹1,358 on the NSE and BSE, 21.36% above the ₹1,119 issue price of India’s largest-ever initial public offering.
An investor allotted one lot of 12 shares, which cost ₹13,428, saw its value rise to ₹16,296 at the listing price, a gain of ₹2,868, according to calculations published by Upstox, citing exchange data. The stock trades on the NSE under the symbol JPL.
Jio Platforms listing caps a record ₹30,213 crore IPO
The ₹30,213 crore offer was an entirely fresh issue of 27 crore equity shares, with no offer-for-sale component. It was subscribed 22.19 times overall, with bids for more than 438 crore shares against about 19.75 crore shares on offer, NSE data showed.
Qualified institutional buyers drove the demand, bidding for 70.55 times the shares set aside for them. The non-institutional portion was subscribed 14 times, while retail investors bid for 2.72 times their quota.
Before the issue opened, the company raised ₹8,109.85 crore from anchor investors. They included LIC, the Government of Singapore, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Capital Group, Fidelity and BlackRock.
Bidding ran from 21 to 23 October, and the basis of allotment was finalised on 27 October. Kotak Mahindra Capital was among the 19 lead managers, while KFin Technologies acted as registrar.
Of the money raised, ₹27,500 crore is earmarked to repay borrowings of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, the material subsidiary that runs the telecom business. The rest will go towards general corporate purposes and issue expenses.
At the upper end of the price band, the IPO valued Jio Platforms at about ₹10.3 lakh crore, India TV reported. That made it the country’s fourth-most valuable company at the issue price, behind parent Reliance Industries at ₹16.2 lakh crore, Bharti Airtel at ₹12.2 lakh crore and HDFC Bank at ₹10.6 lakh crore.
The same report estimated that a 20% listing premium would lift Jio’s market value above ₹12.3 lakh crore, which could place it second only to Reliance. The debut premium of 21.36% was above that level, although the closing price and end-of-day market capitalisation were not available at the time of writing.
The Reliance group’s holding in Jio Platforms falls to 64.48% after the issue, from 66.43% before it, according to IPO data compiled by Chittorgarh.
Why the Jio Platforms IPO matters for investors
Jio houses India’s biggest wireless operator and has more than 530 million users, according to Malay Mail. The service launched a decade ago with steep discounts that pulled customers away from Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, and it has since moved into digital services and artificial intelligence.
Analysts view the business as central to Reliance’s plan to grow beyond oil. Brokerage Emkay Global has called Jio “the digital engine of India” and pointed to its “proven execution record”. It also said cash generation was improving as the 5G investment cycle winds down.
For the wider market, the Jio Platforms listing came in what Malay Mail described as a weak year for Indian equities. The heavy oversubscription in the institutional book shows that large domestic and foreign funds were willing to commit sizeable sums to a scaled telecom and digital platform.
Jio’s listed domestic peers are Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. The company is also reported to be weighing a low Earth orbit satellite constellation, which would put it in competition with Elon Musk’s Starlink.
What comes next for Jio shares
Investors will get their first look at Jio as a listed company on Friday, 30 October, when it reports results for the September quarter, Reliance Industries has said. Subscriber additions, revenue per user and the pace of debt reduction after the IPO are likely to be in focus.
The Jio Platforms listing also gives fund managers a direct way to own the Reliance group’s digital business, exposure to which public-market investors earlier gained mainly through Reliance Industries shares. For more on corporate earnings and deals, see our latest business news coverage.
