Jio Platforms gains 21 per cent on debut, second only to Reliance in value

MUMBAI: Jio Platforms listed at Rs 1,358 on the BSE and NSE on Wednesday, a 21.36 per cent premium over its issue price of Rs 1,119. The listing valued the Reliance Industries unit at Rs 12,57,401 crore, making it the country's second most valuable listed company.

The stock climbed to a day high of Rs 1,375 on the BSE, up 22.87 per cent, and touched Rs 1,374.50 on the NSE by late morning, PTI reported. Jio Platforms now ranks ahead of Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank by market capitalisation. Reliance Industries remains the most valuable firm at Rs 15.94 lakh crore.

The Rs 30,213 crore initial public offering, India's largest, drew bids for 22.19 times the shares on offer. Total demand across the public issue and the anchor placement crossed Rs 7.4 lakh crore, with applications approaching 1.39 crore, the highest for any public issue in the world. The offer was a fresh sale of 27 crore shares.

Demand built within minutes of the issue opening on October 21. The offer was fully subscribed in 100 minutes, the fastest for a large Indian issue, and closed on October 23. Jio Platforms raised about Rs 8,110 crore from 212 anchor investors on October 19 at Rs 1,119 a share.

At the listing ceremony at the NSE, Jio Platforms managing director Akash Ambani thanked institutional and retail investors. "My heart overflows with gratitude. Gratitude to every individual, every institutional investor in India and abroad, who made our IPO a blockbuster success," he said.

Reliance Industries executive director Anant Ambani told the gathering that the exchange bell would ring like a temple bell for him. "For me business is puja and every puja ends with prasad, and prasad is always shared," he said.

The NSE said Jio Platforms is the 12th Reliance Industries company to list on the exchange.

Brokerages stayed positive. Motilal Oswal Financial Services said Jio Platforms could trade at a premium to Bharti's India business on its market leadership, influence over tariffs and low liquidity. Revenue growth is expected to be aided by a tariff increase of nearly 15 per cent and faster home broadband additions, the firm said.

Several brokerages described the valuation of up to $108.3 billion as attractive, while flagging competition, heavy capital spending and changes in telecom rules as risks.

Jio Platforms is positioning itself beyond mobile services. Akash Ambani told PTI that artificial intelligence, cloud computing and 6G would drive the next phase of growth, built on the company's own 5G core and cloud-native radio network. The company serves 533.3 million customers.

The company sees room to expand. About 26 crore Indians still use 2G services, and fixed broadband reaches only about 21 per cent of households, Ambani said.

The listing underlined India's place in the global IPO market. The country has recorded 246 listings this year, the most of any market, and raised $13.5 billion, the fourth highest, according to LSEG data.

(With inputs from PTI)