Jio Platforms' ₹30,213 Crore IPO Opens to Public Bids Wednesday at ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 a Share

Since Jio Platforms locked in about ₹8,110 crore from anchor investors on Monday, Oct. 19, attention has moved to the public book. Bidding opens Wednesday, Oct. 21, and closes Friday, Oct. 23, with 10 a.m. IST set as the start on opening day.

The offer is ₹30,213 crore, about $3.2 billion, and it is entirely a fresh issue of 27 crore shares. No existing shareholder is selling.

Price, lot size and who gets what

The price band is ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 per share. At the top of the band, the offer documents put Jio Platforms' value at about $108.3 billion, or roughly ₹10.3 lakh crore.

The minimum bid is one lot of 12 shares. At the top of the band, that is ₹13,428.

Retail individual investors are eligible for at least 35% of the net offer. Eligible Reliance Industries shareholders have a reservation of up to ₹2,500 crore. Eligible employees have up to ₹500 crore.

Allotment is expected to be finalised Monday, Oct. 26. Shares are scheduled to list on the NSE and BSE on Wednesday, Oct. 28.

Where the money goes

The offer is mainly about debt. Of the proceeds, ₹27,500 crore is earmarked to repay or prepay borrowings of Reliance Jio Infocomm, Jio's main operating subsidiary, most of them external commercial borrowings. The rest goes to general corporate purposes.

Reliance Industries stays in control. Its stake in Jio Platforms is expected to fall from about 66.43% to about 64.4% after the issue.

This is the first IPO from the Reliance group since 2006. Mukesh Ambani first promised a Jio listing within five years back in 2019, and plans slipped again in 2025. A filing targeted for as early as March was pushed back after the Iran war dampened appetite for new issues, Reuters reported.

The numbers behind the valuation

Jio Platforms earned about $3.2 billion in profit on $15.5 billion of revenue in the year to March, with roughly 90% of both figures coming from telecoms, according to Reuters. The company serves more than 500 million subscribers.

In rupee terms, Religare Broking's note shows revenue from operations rising from ₹1,09,558 crore in FY24 to ₹1,46,885 crore in FY26. Profit after tax rose from ₹21,423 crore to ₹30,049 crore over the same period.

EBITDA margin reached 51.9% in FY26. Net leverage fell to 0.36 times.

Grey market and brokerage views

The grey market premium stood at ₹273 in the latest data on the morning of Oct. 21 IST, up from ₹245 on Oct. 19 and ₹235 on Oct. 17. That implies a listing price near ₹1,392, a 24.4% gain over the top of the band.

The grey market is unofficial and unregulated. India Today noted the premium "can change before listing" and guarantees nothing about the listing price.

Motilal Oswal Wealth Management recommends subscribing for both listing gains and the long term. It cites Jio's market leadership, earnings growth and opportunities in broadband, enterprise technology and AI. The firm said the key things to watch will be ARPU growth, tariff hikes and the monetisation of digital services.

Shriram Finance also rates the issue "subscribe" for a medium- to long-term horizon. It calls Jio "a core structural compounder for India's digital economy." Religare Broking has a "Subscribe – Long Term" rating, built on an FY28 EV/EBITDA multiple of 11.6 times.

The same Shriram note lists the risks: regulation, competition, related-party dependence and financial obligations. It adds that the regulatory and competitive risks remain.

A cautious backdrop

Reuters described the sale as a test of global appetite for new issues at a time when investors have sharpened their scrutiny of AI-related companies. Indian markets have been subdued in recent weeks, though the IPO lands during the Hindu festive season, which is considered auspicious for purchases.

A person in the industry with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters that Reliance paid its more than 400,000 employees their salaries about 15 days early this month. The person also said the company helped facilitate share-account opening for people interested in applying. Reliance did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.

The retail response is the open question. The anchor book drew demand of about ₹2.5 lakh crore, more than 30 times the amount offered. The retail and shareholder portions have yet to face their own test, and that begins when the window opens Wednesday.

The next fixed dates are the close of bidding on Friday, Oct. 23, and the expected allotment on Monday, Oct. 26.