Ambani's Jio Platforms eyes record $3.8 billion Indian IPO, sources say

MUMBAI: Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Platforms has approved plans to list in Mumbai to raise around $3.8 billion, sources said, in what could be a record IPO for the country.

The share listing aims to unlock value in a business that includes Reliance Infocomm, the world’s second-largest telecom operator by subscribers after China Mobile, with about 500 million users, and also houses AI, cloud and enterprise network businesses.

The IPO is targeting a fundraising of around 360 billion Indian rupees ($3.81 billion), three sources familiar with the matter said, equal to about 2.9% of its post-issue equity.

Reliance did not respond to Reuters queries. The final details could change closer to the listing process.

A company statement did not provide more details on the IPO, but the prospectus was due to be filed later on Friday, Ambani said in a shareholder address.

Also read: Ambani’s Jio Platforms IPO pivots to pure fundraising, no investor exits, sources say

“The Jio IPO is described as the most important value creation milestone this year,” Ambani said.

The company said it would issue up to 270 million new shares.

In 2020, Jio raised funds from marquee global investors including Meta, Alphabet’s Google and Vista Equity Partners, diluting 33% of its stake. Jefferies has in the past valued the business at $180 billion.

Those investors were betting on India’s rapidly expanding digital economy of 1.4 billion people where smartphone penetration is accelerating, internet costs are among the lowest in the world, and a young, mobile-first population is moving online at scale.

Jio says it currently has a roughly 60% share of India’s data traffic.