Jio shares surge 21% in market debut after blockbuster India IPO
Jio has debuted as India's second-most valuable listed company, behind its parent, Reliance Industries.
Jio Platforms, a telecom and digital services unit founded by billionaire Mukesh Ambani and supported by Meta and Google, experienced a significant surge of 21% in its stock market debut on Wednesday. The company raised a substantial $3.2 billion in India's largest and most subscribed IPO, which garnered over $77 billion in investor bids.
Jio opened at ₹1,358 ($14) per share, up from its IPO price of ₹1,119 ($12), valuing the company at approximately ₹12.5 trillion ($131.9 billion) and making it India's second-most valuable listed company after its parent, Reliance Industries, which is worth around ₹16 trillion ($168.6 billion).
The initial public offering (IPO), which ran from October 21 to 22, attracted bids for 22.19 times the shares on sale, indicating strong investor demand for shares in the largest telecom operator in the country. More than 13.8 million people applied, making it India's most subscribed stock offering on record. Jio entered the Indian telecom market in 2016, offering free data and low-cost services, which allowed it to quickly gain customers from established operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, and state-owned BSNL.
Today, Jio is the largest telecom operator in the country, serving over 540 million customers. Its prices have since aligned with its rivals, but the company has expanded into broadband, cloud services, and AI.
At the listing ceremony, Akash Ambani, Jio Platforms' managing director and Mukesh Ambani's eldest son, stated that Jio serves more than 540 million customers and expressed his ambition for Jio to become a global technology company. "My dream is that one day, when the world counts its great technology companies, one of them will be from India, and that company will be called Jio Platforms Limited," he said.
The IPO proceeds will be used to repay debt at Reliance Jio Infocomm, with the remainder allocated to general corporate purposes. As of June 30, Jio had total borrowings of ₹613.7 billion ($6.5 billion). The company has already drawn billions of dollars from American investors, with Meta investing $5.7 billion and Google contributing $4.5 billion during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Other investors in the IPO included General Atlantic, Silver Lake, and Vista Equity Partners, all of whom held shares in the company throughout the offering.
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