Jio Platforms IPO’s institutional quota fills in minutes

Dubai: The institutional portion of the Jio Platforms initial public offering (IPO) was fully subscribed within 28 minutes of opening on October 21, NSE data shows.

Qualified institutional buyers bid for 2.86 times the shares reserved for them. Non-institutional investors took up 16 per cent to 18 per cent of their quota. While retail demand reached 14 per cent to 16 per cent, and the overall issue stood at 84 per cent subscribed within minutes.

The offering is worth $3.2 billion or Dh11.75 billion. It is India’s largest share sale to date and the first from Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance conglomerate since 2006.

Demand was visible two days earlier when the anchor book opened on October 19. Then Jio Platforms raised Rs 8,109.84 crore, or $853 million (Dh3.13 billion), from 212 anchor investors. Bids for that tranche exceeded $25 billion (Dh91.8 billion), about 30 times the amount on offer.

Bids for that tranche exceeded $25 billion (Dh91.8 billion), about 30 times the amount on offer.

BlackRock, Capital Group, Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price and JPMorgan Asset Management took part. Sovereign funds including the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Qatar Investment Authority, Singapore’s GIC and Norges Bank Investment Management also participated.

The price band is Rs 1,065 to Rs 1,119 per share, roughly $11.20 to $11.77 (Dh41.1 to Dh43.2). Bidding closes on October 23, and shares list on October 28.

The IPO values Jio Platforms at up to $108.3 billion (Dh397.7 billion). About a third of the shares are reserved for retail investors. Reliance employees and shareholders can also apply.

If an Indian expat in the UAE wants to apply for the IPO they can do so via their NRE or NRO accounts. UAE residents of other nationalities may not be able to bid as retail investors. And the issue has no separate NRI quota. Applicants bid as retail investors up to ₹2 lakh, or in the non-institutional category in case for higher threshold. For retail applicants one lot of 12 shares could cost ₹13,428 or about Dh522.

Jio Platforms runs India’s largest telecom operator, with more than 500 million subscribers. That makes it the world’s second-largest single-country operator after China Mobile. Meta and Google are among its backers.

The telecom arm launched in 2016 with cheap data and free voice calls. It took market share from Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.

Ambani first promised a listing in 2019. Plans slipped in 2025, and a filing targeted for March was pushed back after the Iran war dampened IPO appetite.

The launch coincides with the Hindu festive season, considered auspicious for purchases, though Indian markets have stayed subdued in recent weeks. A person with direct knowledge told Reuters that Reliance paid its more than 400,000 employees their October salaries about 15 days early. The company also helped interested investors open share accounts.

Note: With inputs from Reuters