India opens applications for Jio Platforms’ $3.2 billion IPO — Channel NewsAsia

India opened applications on October 21 for the $3.2 billion initial public offering of Jio Platforms. It is the largest share sale in the country’s history and the first IPO by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries conglomerate in two decades, Channel NewsAsia reports.

Offering terms

The company set a price range of 1,065–1,119 rupees per share. Retail investors, employees and Reliance shareholders may apply; applications will close on Friday. About one-third of the shares offered in the IPO were reserved for retail investors.

At the upper end of the valuation, Jio Platforms could be valued at $108.3 billion. Trading in the shares is scheduled to begin on October 28, and the company could potentially become one of India’s largest by market capitalization.

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Investor interest

This week, Jio Platforms already allocated $853 million in shares to global and domestic investors, including Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and BlackRock. Applications for the portion of shares reserved for these investors exceeded $25 billion.

Jio Platforms is backed by Meta, Google and institutional investors. The company combines India’s largest telecommunications operator, with more than 500 million subscribers; it is the second-largest operator operating within a single country after China Mobile.

Jio’s telecommunications business, run by Ambani’s son Akash, began operations in 2016. The company rapidly increased its market share through cheap mobile internet and free voice calls. In the year to March, Jio Platforms earned about $3.2 billion in profit on revenue of $15.5 billion, with the telecommunications unit accounting for about 90% of both figures.