Ambani’s Jio seeks India’s biggest IPO at a US$108 billion valuation. Will investors bite?

[BENGALURU] Jio Platforms, which has transformed how millions of Indians connect to the Internet, is preparing for an initial public offering of 302 billion rupees (US$3.2 billion), in what is set to be India’s largest.

The listing will test whether its earnings and growth prospects can justify a US$108 billion valuation, while offering a gauge of foreign investor appetite for India amid sustained equity outflows.

Public bidding opened on Wednesday (Oct 21).

So far, institutional investors’ response has been strong. Jio’s anchor-investor book attracted bids worth 2.5 trillion rupees, about 30 times the amount reserved for the category, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The investor pool included global asset managers such as BlackRock and Fidelity Investments, alongside sovereign wealth funds including Singapore’s GIC, going by the company’s filing.

Jio’s listing could strengthen its capacity to pursue investments in areas such as satellite connectivity and data centres, while potentially positioning it for future network technologies, including 6G, said Mahesh Uppal, a telecommunications policy and regulatory expert and director at Com First (India).

Jio, the telecoms and digital services business controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, has set an IPO price band of 1,065 to 1,119 rupees a share, valuing the company at up to 10.3 trillion rupees.

That would make it India’s fourth-largest listed company by market capitalisation, after Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and HDFC Bank.

Growth built on scale 

India’s mobile broadband market is dominated by three private operators, which together accounted for more than 97 per cent of subscribers as at Jun 30.

Jio led with a 49.78 per cent market share, followed by Bharti Airtel at 35.47 per cent, and Vodafone Idea, 12.51 per cent. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) held the remaining 2.2 per cent.

Emkay Research in a note said that Jio had scaled to 1.5 trillion rupees in revenue in the 2026 financial year, within a decade of its launch. Revenue from operations grew at a compound annual growth rate of 15.8 per cent between FY2024 and FY2026.

When the company launched in 2016, it offered free voice calls and aggressively priced data, forcing established operators to slash tariffs and accelerating the adoption of mobile Internet.

What had been an expensive service for many consumers became accessible to a much wider population, helping fuel the growth of digital payments, online entertainment and other Internet-based services.

The launch was also a defining moment in Ambani’s strategy to diversify Reliance Industries, a sprawling conglomerate with longstanding interests in energy and petrochemicals, into telecoms and digital services.

The result is a scale few telecoms operators can match. As at June 2026, it had 533.3 million customers, accounted for about half of the country’s wireless broadband subscribers and carried roughly 60 per cent of its wireless data traffic.

Jio’s average revenue per user, a key measure of how much the company earns from each customer, rose from 182 rupees in FY2024 to 214 rupees in FY2026, and reached 216 rupees in the first quarter of FY2027.

Tariff increases and greater adoption of premium plans could improve monetisation, while bundled services and enterprise offerings could deepen customer relationships.

The bigger opportunity, however, lies in generating incremental revenue beyond connectivity, said Prabhu Ram, vice-president of the industry research group at CyberMedia Research.

“Jio’s scale provides a powerful platform, but investors will increasingly judge it on returns on capital and earnings growth, rather than subscriber numbers alone,” he said.

Can the premium be justified?

Jio’s valuation appears to carry a premium, although Reliance businesses have historically commanded higher valuations, said Faisal Kawoosa, chief analyst of Techarc.

Jio’s strategy also sets it apart from a conventional telecom operator, he added. By building digital services alongside its connectivity business, it has positioned itself to benefit from the expansion of India’s digital economy.

At the upper end of its IPO price band, Jio is valued at about 33.3 times its FY2026 earnings and 15.6 times its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, based on Emkay Research’s calculations, a premium that puts the spotlight on how much growth investors are already pricing in.

The offering is set to break India’s IPO record, surpassing Hyundai Motor India’s 2024 listing, which raised 278.56 billion rupees.

Jio’s issue comprises entirely newly issued shares and is expected to raise up to 302.13 billion rupees, about 8.4 per cent more than Hyundai’s offering.

A test of foreign investor appetite

Jio’s IPO comes at a time when foreign portfolio investors have been steadily withdrawing money from Indian equities, with outflows exceeding 520 billion rupees in October to the week ended Oct 16.

The sustained selling has weighed on the market, making the response to one of India’s largest public offerings an important test of investor appetite for Indian assets.

The anchor allocation drew participation from more than 200 investor entities, spanning global asset managers, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, technology-focused investors and prominent Indian family offices.

The response highlights the breadth of institutional interest in the offering, although demand from anchor investors does not necessarily indicate how the broader market will respond once the IPO opens to public investors.

Kawoosa sees the interest as primarily company-specific and sector-specific, rather than evidence that overseas investors have changed their view of India.

Ram of CyberMedia said a successful listing could help establish a valuation benchmark for India’s digital economy, and strengthen sentiment towards the country’s capital markets. But the offering alone is unlikely to reverse the broader trend of foreign investor outflows.

“One IPO cannot by itself overcome the broader headwinds facing India or reverse foreign portfolio outflows,” he said. Over the next three years, execution will be key, he added.

Jio’s shares are expected to list on the National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange on Oct 28, following the finalisation of share allotments on Oct 26.