Key points
- Jio draws anchor bids exceeding 30 times supply
- Jio's IPO could break India's record in rupees
- Which funds secured Jio anchor shares
- Most Jio IPO proceeds will repay telecom debt
Jio Platforms drew more than 2.5 trillion rupees ($26.3 billion) in anchor bids ahead of an IPO that could become India's largest in rupee terms. The telecom and digital business controlled by Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries allocated 81.1 billion rupees ($854 million) of shares to 212 investors on Monday at the top price of 1,119 rupees each.
Demand exceeded 30 times the shares available to anchor investors. These are institutional investors that buy before public bidding begins and must hold their shares for a specified period after listing. Reuters separately put anchor bids at about $25 billion.
Public bidding runs from October 21 to October 23. Jio is offering up to 270 million new shares at 1,065 to 1,119 rupees each, putting the potential raise at 287.6 billion to 302.1 billion rupees ($3.03 billion to $3.18 billion). Trading on the NSE and BSE is expected to begin around October 28, according to the prospectus.
A potential record in rupees
A fully subscribed offering would surpass Hyundai Motor India's 2024 IPO even at the bottom of Jio's price range, TechCrunch noted. Hyundai raised 278.7 billion rupees, setting India's current record.
The weaker rupee changes the comparison in dollars. Hyundai's offering was worth about $3.3 billion at the October 2024 exchange rate. Jio would raise about $3.18 billion at its top price using Monday's exchange rate of roughly 95 rupees to the dollar.
At that price, Jio would be valued at about 10.3 trillion rupees ($108 billion), placing Jio among India's four most valuable listed companies at current market values.
LIC got the biggest anchor allocation
Life Insurance Corporation of India received the largest anchor allocation, about 5 billion rupees ($52.6 million), or 6.17% of the anchor shares. New World Fund received 4.86 billion rupees ($51.2 million), and the Government of Singapore received 3.41 billion rupees ($35.9 million).
Indian mutual funds took 34.34% of the anchor shares, spread across 95 schemes from 25 fund houses. BlackRock, Fidelity, and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority were among the foreign anchor investors.
The anchor portion covers about 27% of the whole IPO. Under the prospectus, at least 35% of the offering, after shares set aside for employees and Reliance shareholders, is reserved for retail investors. They can bid in lots of 12 shares, or 13,428 rupees ($141) at the top price.
Most of the money repays telecom debt
The IPO is made up only of new shares, so no existing shareholder is selling. Jio plans to use up to 275 billion rupees ($2.9 billion) of the proceeds to pay down borrowings at Reliance Jio Infocomm, its mobile carrier, according to the prospectus. The rest goes to general corporate purposes. Reliance will keep a majority stake.
Jio's carrier had 533.3 million customers at the end of June. Meta Platforms (META) and Alphabet's Google (GOOGL) agreed in 2020 to invest a combined $10.2 billion in Jio Platforms. The listing would be the first IPO from a Reliance company since Reliance Petroleum's in 2006.
Rupee figures are converted at 94.98 rupees to the dollar, the rate on October 19, 2026, except where a past exchange rate is noted.
