MUMBAI: The initial public offering of Jio Platforms, the digital arm of Reliance Industries, was fully subscribed within 100 minutes of opening on Wednesday, driven by strong demand from qualified institutional buyers, according to exchange data.
The Rs 30,213 crore issue is the largest in Indian market history. It surpasses Hyundai Motor India’s Rs 27,859 crore offering in 2024. Bidding opened at 9 a.m., and the offer closes on Friday, Oct. 23.
By late morning, the issue had drawn bids for about 25 crore shares against roughly 19.75 crore on offer, an overall subscription of 1.27 times. The qualified institutional buyer category, excluding anchor investors, was subscribed 3.86 times. By 3 p.m., institutional demand had risen to about 7.09 times, the non-institutional category had crossed 1.06 times, and the retail portion stood at 0.61 times. When the issue became fully subscribed, non-institutional investors had taken up 26 percent of their quota, retail investors 23 percent and employees 57 percent.
The price band is Rs 1,065 to Rs 1,119 per share. At the top end, the offering values the company at around $108 billion. A successful listing would make Jio Platforms India’s fourth most valuable listed company, behind Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and HDFC Bank.
Institutional appetite was already evident before the public opening. Bids of about $25 billion from investors including GIC, BlackRock and Fidelity reportedly came in on Monday, almost 30 times the portion reserved for anchor investors, according to Reuters, which cited two people familiar with the matter.
The offering is a fresh issue of up to 27 crore shares, and no existing shareholder is selling. Jio plans to use up to Rs 27,500 crore of the proceeds to repay borrowings at its telecom subsidiary, Reliance Jio Infocomm. Shares worth up to Rs 2,500 crore are reserved for eligible Reliance shareholders and up to Rs 500 crore for Jio employees.
Jio Platforms houses India’s largest mobile operator by subscribers, along with digital, cloud and AI businesses. It raised more than $20 billion in 2020 from global investors including Meta and Alphabet. In the quarter ended June, it reported a consolidated profit of Rs 7,764 crore, up 9.2 percent from a year earlier.
Final subscription figures will be known after bidding closes on Friday. Allotment is expected on Oct. 26, with a tentative listing date of Oct. 28 on the NSE and BSE.