A record offering opens
Jio Platforms' initial public offering opened for subscription on October 21, 2026 and closed on October 23, 2026, with shares priced in a band of ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 each. Subscription data from the opening morning proved difficult to reconcile. Citing BSE figures, Inc42 reported that around 9:45 am IST the issue was subscribed roughly 58% overall, with qualified institutional buyers booking about 1.95 times their allotted portion within minutes, while retail and non-institutional investor categories stood at roughly 10% and 12% respectively. A separate live report, from Goodreturns, said the offering was fully subscribed in under an hour, with institutional demand at 3.25 times the reserved portion. The two accounts were not reconciled, and it remains unclear which figure most accurately reflected demand at that stage of trading.
What Jio Platforms is, and what it's worth
Jio Platforms Limited is described as the holding company for Reliance Industries' telecom and digital operations, with nearly all of its revenue, profit and earnings said to flow through its subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, which holds the actual telecom licence and spectrum, according to one account. The company reportedly filed its draft prospectus with India's securities regulator, SEBI, on June 19, 2026, and reportedly received regulatory clearance around August 28, 2026, before filing its final offer document on October 14, 2026, ahead of the public offering opening a week later. Before the IPO, Reliance Industries held approximately 66.43% of Jio Platforms' equity. Meta affiliate Jaadhu Holdings LLC held about 9.98% and Google International LLC held about 7.73%, with the remaining stake spread across investors including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and entities linked to KKR, Vista Equity Partners, Silver Lake, Mubadala, General Atlantic and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. This ownership traces back to 2020, when Jio Platforms was reported to have raised about ₹1.52 lakh crore from 13 investors for a combined 32.9% stake, at an implied valuation of roughly $65–70 billion — a historical comparison point cited in reporting rather than a figure independently verified in this account. By FY26, Jio Platforms' consolidated revenue had risen to about ₹1,46,885 crore, up roughly 14.6% from about ₹1,28,218 crore in FY25, while profit after tax climbed to about ₹30,049 crore from about ₹26,109 crore. As of the June 2026 quarter, the company reported a subscriber base of roughly 524–533 million customers, including an estimated 268–285 million 5G subscribers, with average revenue per user of around ₹214–216 per month.
How the offering was structured
The IPO consisted entirely of a fresh issue of up to 27 crore equity shares of ₹10 face value each, with no offer-for-sale component — meaning existing shareholders did not sell any of their holdings through the listing. The minimum lot size was 12 shares, implying a minimum retail investment of roughly ₹13,428 at the top of the price band. Of the total issue, half was reportedly reserved for qualified institutional buyers, 35% for non-institutional investors and 15% for retail individual investors, with eligible Reliance Industries shareholders and Jio or Reliance employees also permitted to apply. Ahead of the public offering, the company reportedly allotted shares worth about ₹8,109.85 crore to 212 anchor investors at the top of the price band. Proceeds from the fresh issue were earmarked primarily to repay or prepay borrowings held by Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, with any remainder set aside for general corporate purposes.
A valuation markdown, and what it means for Reliance
At the top of its price band, the IPO valued Jio Platforms at up to approximately ₹10.3 lakh crore, reported as roughly $108.3 billion — a figure analysts said would place it among India's most valuable listed companies, trailing only Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and HDFC Bank. Several outlets described the roughly ₹30,213 crore share sale as India's largest-ever IPO and Reliance's first public listing of a major business unit since Reliance Petroleum's 2006 offering. Institutional demand was reported to be strong, with qualified institutional buyer bids said to exceed $25 billion, according to one outlet's reporting. That final valuation came in well below earlier expectations. Unnamed investment bankers were reported in November 2025 to be proposing valuations as wide as $130 billion to $170 billion, a range that would have placed Jio among India's two or three most valuable companies, ahead of Bharti Airtel, then valued at about $143 billion. Separately, brokerage ICICI Securities had estimated in an October 2025 note that Jio could be worth around $148 billion by FY27, citing strong free cash flow and potential for deleveraging. The roughly $108.3 billion outcome represented a markdown against both of those benchmarks, though the precise reasons for the gap, including an initial expectation that the offering could raise more than $6 billion before a reported regulatory change reduced the eventual size, remain only partially documented in available reporting. For Reliance Industries itself, analysts framed the listing as a 'value-discovery event' that would give the market a clearer reference point for its roughly 66.4% stake in Jio — estimated by Ventura's head of research, Vinit Bolinjkar, to be worth more than ₹7 lakh crore at an ₹11 lakh crore Jio valuation. But because Reliance would retain such an overwhelming majority stake even after listing, analysts cautioned the IPO might not immediately eliminate the long-standing 'holding company discount' applied to RIL shares. Brokerage Nomura reportedly estimated the implied value from Jio's valuation at roughly ₹481–506 per RIL share before such a discount, falling to about ₹385–405 per share after applying a 20% discount. On valuation multiples, the upper price band implied a historical price-to-earnings ratio of about 32.6 to 34.3 times Jio Platforms' FY26 net profit — a figure one analysis framed as raising the question of whether future earnings growth was already priced in. A separate comparison found Jio's return on average net worth in FY26 at about 9.42%, versus listed rival Bharti Airtel's reported 20.32%, suggesting comparatively lower capital efficiency for Jio despite its larger scale.
Listing day and the telecom benchmark
Jio Platforms shares were tentatively scheduled to list on the NSE and BSE on October 28, 2026, with the basis of allotment expected to be finalised around October 26, 2026. How the stock actually performed on listing day, and whether its market capitalisation held near the top-band valuation, was not covered in available reporting at the time of this account. Market commentators widely framed the listing as establishing a public valuation benchmark for India's telecom sector, given the direct comparisons drawn in coverage between Jio's targeted valuation and that of listed rival Bharti Airtel. Whether Bharti Airtel or Vodafone Idea made any concrete competitive or tariff response to the listing was not addressed in available sources.
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