Jio Platforms Lists at Rs 1,358, a 21% Premium, After India's Largest IPO

Since bidding opened on Oct. 21 and the issue was fully booked in under 100 minutes, Jio Platforms has gone from a record offering to a live listing. Shares debuted this morning, Oct. 28, on both the BSE and the NSE at Rs 1,358. That is a 21.36% premium over the Rs 1,119 issue price, or Rs 239 a share.

The ticker is JPL. At about 10:08 a.m. IST the stock was quoted at Rs 1,369, up roughly 0.8% from its listing price, according to the Times of India's live tracker.

The offering

The issue raised about Rs 30,200 crore, or $3.2 billion, by selling 270 million new shares. That beats the 2024 Hyundai Motor India offering of Rs 27,870 crore as India's largest IPO.

It was also entirely a fresh issue. Reliance Industries, Meta and Google did not sell a single share, so the money goes to the company.

According to the offer documents, Jio plans to use Rs 27,500 crore of the proceeds to prepay or repay borrowings of its material subsidiary, Reliance Jio Infocomm. That is the bulk of the raise.

Bidding closed Oct. 23. Per NSE data, the issue was subscribed 22.19 times. Qualified institutional buyers bid for 70.55 times their allotment, non-institutional investors 14.09 times, and retail investors 2.72 times. The price was set at the top of the Rs 1,065 to Rs 1,119 band.

Before the public issue, Jio allotted Rs 8,109.85 crore of shares to 212 anchor investors. The anchor list reportedly includes BlackRock, BNP Paribas, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, JPMorgan Chase and India's Life Insurance Corporation.

The exchanges extended daily bidding hours to 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the three-day window to handle the flow of applications.

Who owns what, and what it's worth

At the listing price, Jio's market value is about Rs 12.5 trillion. That makes it India's second-most valuable listed company, behind Reliance at Rs 16.15 trillion and ahead of Bharti Airtel at Rs 12.18 trillion, per BSE data cited by Business Standard.

At the issue price, the post-issue value was about Rs 10.30 lakh crore. The listing pop added roughly Rs 2.2 lakh crore on top of that.

After the offering, Reliance retains a 64.4% stake. Meta is the largest outside shareholder at 9.7%, and Google holds 7.5%. Akash Ambani is managing director and his father Mukesh Ambani is chairman. The company says it has more than 530 million customers.

For investors who got an allotment, one lot of 12 shares gained about Rs 2,900 at the listing price. The minimum retail bid was Rs 13,428.

Ambani at the bell

At the listing ceremony in Mumbai, Mukesh Ambani thanked the "millions who believed in Jio," and said, "For me, business is a form of worship." He said the day was offered to Lord Ganesha and other deities. Akash Ambani and Isha Ambani attended.

The Times of India reports that this is the first public offering from the Reliance group in two decades.

The broader market

Jio listed into a soft tape. Business Standard's market blog showed the Sensex down about 400 points and the Nifty below 22,700 as the stock debuted.

Brokerages moved quickly. Nomura initiated coverage with a "buy" and a Rs 1,340 target, which it says implies about 20% upside over the issue price. It called the stock a potential long-term value creator.

Motilal Oswal also rates it "buy," with a Rs 1,350 base-case target and a Rs 1,690 bull case, which it says implies 51% upside over the issue price. Elara Capital started at "buy" with a Rs 1,367 target.

The pre-listing grey market had pointed to roughly Rs 1,367, so the Rs 1,358 open landed close to expectations.

What to watch

Both Nomura's and Motilal Oswal's base-case targets sit at or below the Rs 1,358 listing price. Elara's Rs 1,367 is only about 0.7% above it. Their upside figures are measured from the Rs 1,119 issue price, not from where the stock now trades.

Whether JPL holds near Rs 1,350 to Rs 1,370 through its first full session is the immediate test. The first-day closing price on the NSE and BSE will settle that.