Jio Platforms, the digital arm of Reliance Industries (RIL), will open India’s largest initial public offering (IPO) on October 21, with a price band of ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 a share. At the top end, the fresh issue of 270 million shares will raise around ₹30,213 crore and value the company at ₹10,30,491 crore. That makes it about ₹2,300 crore larger than Hyundai Motor India’s ₹27,870-crore offer in 2024, which has so far been India’s biggest. In September, NSE had raised ₹22,562 crore, making it the biggest IPO of 2026 and the second-biggest in size, next only to Hyundai Motor.
It is also the first IPO from the Reliance group in nearly two decades. What makes the issue unique is that it has no offer for sale, unlike the other big issues from the past. It is also priced with retail investors in mind. The purpose of the issue is to repay debt and make the company debt-free.
The Reliance family presented the issue as an offer that leaves money on the table for shareholders. At the top end of the band, Jio is valued at 34 times its FY26 earnings, while Bharti Airtel, its closest listed rival, trades at about 39 times. “Part of Reliance’s philosophy, and one that really has been passed on to us from my grandfather’s time, is to create shareholder value,” Isha Ambani said at a press conference in Mumbai on Thursday. “It is most important to be able to price this attractively so that shareholders who come in can create long-term value along with the growth of Jio Platforms.”
The company on offer has 533 million customers and carries about 60 per cent of India’s wireless data traffic. In 2025-26 (FY26), it earned ₹1,46,885 crore in revenue, ₹76,255 crore in Ebitda and ₹30,049 crore in net profit. Its Ebitda margin reached 53.3 per cent in the April-June quarter, up from about 50 per cent three years ago. All of the ₹27,500 crore earmarked from the proceeds will go towards prepaying debt. “The full proceeds take us to be a net-debt-free company,” said Akash Ambani, managing director of Jio Platforms.
Revenue of the company grew at a compound annual rate of 15.8 per cent between FY24 and FY26, from ₹1,09,558 crore to ₹1,46,885 crore. Ebitda grew at 17.8 per cent, from ₹54,959 crore to ₹76,255 crore. “That has put us growing faster than even the global tech companies,” Akash Ambani said.
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Uday Kotak, founder of Kotak Mahindra Bank, linked the issue to Reliance’s first public offer when, as a 15-year-old, he had seen celebrations on Marine Drive, which also inspired him to get into financial services.
Dhirubhai Ambani took the company, then called Reliance Textile Industries, public in 1977. “The RIL group, since 1977, has always believed in making it attractive for investors to be long-term with the group,” Kotak said. “After nearly two decades, it will be India’s largest IPO ever.”
That offer brought a generation of small investors into the market, and Reliance has built its identity around them since. Isha Ambani said RIL had delivered a 29 per cent annualised return since that listing. “For him, Reliance is never just a company. Reliance is a promise that every Indian should have the opportunity to participate in India’s growth, to share in India’s prosperity,” she said of her grandfather, who popularised the IPO culture in India. “Three generations later, we carry forward not only his vision, but also the trust of millions of shareholders who believed in his vision and made it their own.”
She said the group judged its businesses against two goals. “The first is that we like to create and protect fortress-like balance sheets, and the second is that we steer our businesses towards generating compounding free cash flow,” she said. “Financial prudence is embedded in our DNA.”
She pointed to Mukesh Ambani’s promise in 2019 to make RIL net-debt-free by 2021. “Covid came along with it, and along with that came a global slowdown. And yet, nine months ahead of schedule, that promise was delivered on. And that is what shareholder commitment means to us at Reliance.”
Uday Kotak said investors’ demand shaped the price of the issue and also added that Akash Ambani held more than 50 one-on-one meetings with institutional investors around the world before the launch.
The issue
The new shares will dilute the existing equity by about 2.9 per cent. RIL’s stake will fall from 66.43 per cent to around 64.5 per cent. Meta’s affiliate Jaadhu Holdings holds 9.98 per cent, and Google holds 7.73 per cent.
Within the issue, ₹2,500 crore is reserved for RIL shareholders and ₹500 crore for employees, who get a 5 per cent discount. Half the net issue is set aside for qualified institutional buyers, 35 per cent for retail investors and 15 per cent for non-institutional investors. The anchor book, about 30 per cent of the issue, opens on October 19. The issue closes on October 23, and the shares are due to list on the BSE and the NSE on October 28. Nineteen book-running lead managers are handling the issue.
The prospectus puts the average price-to-earnings ratio of listed peers at 22.35 times. That figure is pulled down by Vodafone Idea’s 3.99 times, which reflects one-time gains, while Airtel is the highest at 40.71 times.
Total borrowings of the company stood at ₹61,372 crore at the end of June. Jio held ₹51,833 crore in cash and marketable securities, so its net debt was ₹9,539 crore, down from ₹48,440 crore in March 2024. Net debt to Ebitda fell from 0.88 times in FY24 to 0.36 times in FY26.
The ₹27,500 crore will go towards prepaying borrowings of the main subsidiary, Reliance Jio Infocomm, including external commercial borrowings, within FY27.
“So all our IPO proceeds go to reducing our net debt,” Akash Ambani said. “We have almost three billion dollars of debt on our books. The full proceeds take us to be a net-debt-free company, and the growth capital is something that will flow from our revenue.”