MUMBAI (Oct 22): Appetite for the US$3.2 billion (RM13 billion) IPO of billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Jio Platforms kept building on Thursday, its second day of public bidding, with orders for shares more than four times the amount available and the retail portion fully subscribed.
In what is set to be India's largest IPO and the first by Reliance in 20 years, the listing is a key plank of Ambani’s long-term vision to turn Reliance Industries from an oil-and-chemicals giant into an "everything company" spanning consumer, retail and technology.
Institutional investors have led demand, with qualified institutional buyers bidding for 9.78 times their quota, exchange data showed. Retail investors, for whom around a third of the issue is reserved, covered their own portion in full by the first two hours in the second of three days of public bidding and had bid 1.29 times their quota.
The IPO has generated strong retail demand in the primary market thanks largely to the Reliance brand, with a reach well beyond Jio Platforms' telecoms business, said an analyst tracking the IPO.
For many Indian families, shareholdings in Reliance have long been a trusted nest egg, with its Mumbai-traded shares rising around 330-fold since 1990. Announcing the listing in June, Ambani described it as "a deeply emotional moment for me, for the entire Reliance Family, and millions of its shareholders."
Jio helped put streaming, digital payments and online services within reach of millions of Indians through cheap data and free calls. Its next phase leans on 5G, home broadband and cloud and AI services.
On its first day of public bidding, the overall offering was filled within 90 minutes of opening, driven by institutions that snapped up their portion within minutes. It was a rare start for an IPO of this size in India, where large offerings tend to see most bids in the final hours.
The IPO has been watched as a barometer of global demand for new listings, with AI-linked companies facing tougher scrutiny. About 90% of Jio's revenue comes from its telecoms business.
The IPO values Jio Platforms at up to US$108.3 billion, potentially making it one of India's biggest companies by market capitalisation when trading starts on Oct 28.
Jio's telecoms arm, led by Mukesh Ambani's son Akash, was built on a gamble in 2016: that cheap data would make Indians spend far more time online. Low prices and free voice calls drew subscribers away from Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea in short order.
Today, more than 500 million Indians subscribe to Jio, which houses the country's biggest telecoms operator and ranks behind only China Mobile among carriers serving a single country.
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