By Hamza Faisal
India's largest initial public offering in history has officially begun. Jio Platforms, the digital services arm of Reliance Industries, opened its anchor investor book on Monday, October 19, giving institutional investors the first bite of a Rs 30,213-crore share sale before the public issue opens on October 21.
The anchor round is the moment of truth. Market watchers expect the book to pull in bids of around Rs 8,000 crore, and the response will set the tone for the public offer, which runs from October 21 to October 23. With the Indian market closed on October 20 for Dussehra, Monday's bidding is effectively the opening bell of the landmark listing.
The anchor test
The IPO is a 100 percent fresh issue of up to 27 crore equity shares, priced in a band of Rs 1,065 to Rs 1,119 per share. There is no offer for sale, which means every rupee raised flows into Jio Platforms itself while existing backers — including Reliance Industries, Meta and Google — keep their stakes intact. Share allotment is expected on October 26, with a tentative listing on the NSE and BSE on October 28.
At the upper end of the price band, Jio is seeking a valuation of about Rs 10.3 lakh crore — roughly $108 billion — which would make it one of India's most valuable companies on debut. Early signals look strong: the grey market is commanding a premium of around Rs 220 a share, roughly 20 percent above the offer price, indicating brisk investor appetite.
A record with a different structure
The Rs 30,213-crore issue would smash India's previous IPO record, the Rs 27,859-crore Hyundai Motor India offering of 2024. It also dwarfs the National Stock Exchange's own Rs 22,563-crore listing earlier this year and the Rs 20,557-crore LIC issue of 2022. But Jio's offering differs from its predecessors in one key way: Hyundai and LIC were entirely offers for sale, enriching existing shareholders, while Jio's is fully fresh capital for the company.
Jio plans to use up to Rs 27,500 crore of the proceeds to repay or prepay borrowings at its telecom subsidiary, Reliance Jio Infocomm, with the remainder earmarked for general corporate purposes. Managing director Akash Ambani has said the debt reduction would move the company toward becoming net debt-free. The issue also carries special reservations of up to Rs 2,500 crore for eligible Reliance Industries shareholders and Rs 500 crore for employees, who get a Rs 54-per-share discount.
A telecom giant pitching technology
Jio has spent the past decade positioning itself as more than a telecom company. Since launching services in 2016, it has become India's largest operator by subscribers with over 530 million customers, and it reported a profit of Rs 30,049 crore in FY26. In recent investor briefings, Akash Ambani has argued the company's future lies in an integrated technology stack spanning connectivity, cloud, devices, software and artificial intelligence — pitching the IPO as a bet on India's digital economy, which he expects to reach $1.4 trillion by FY31.
For Reliance Industries, the listing gives public-market investors their first direct shot at owning one of its most important businesses. The anchor book's closing readout on Monday will show whether institutional money agrees with the pitch.
By Hamza Faisal
