New Delhi, October 23: Jio Platforms’ mega initial public offering (IPO) has created a global record by crossing one crore applications, becoming the first public offer worldwide to reach the milestone, sources said on Friday.
The response surpassed the previous reported global record of approximately 97 lakh applications, set by Waaree Energies, and exceeded earlier Indian record-holders, including Bajaj Housing Finance.
According to sources, the Jio Platforms IPO crossed the one-crore mark with around five hours remaining before the subscription window closed, reflecting strong investor participation.
By 12:03 pm on Friday, investors had bid for 136.32 crore shares against the 19.75 crore shares on offer, translating into an overall subscription of nearly seven times.
Institutional investors lead demand
Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) led the subscription, bidding for 70.85 crore shares against the 4.90 crore shares reserved for them, representing 14.46 times subscription.
Domestic financial institutions, including banks, financial institutions and insurers, bid for 34.51 crore shares, while foreign institutional investors placed bids for 26.95 crore shares. Mutual funds accounted for bids for 4.40 crore shares.
The non-institutional investor category was subscribed 9.45 times, while the retail individual investor segment received bids for 17.19 crore shares against 8.50 crore shares available, translating into 2.02 times subscription.
The shareholders’ reservation portion was subscribed 5.68 times, while the employee category recorded 2.48 times subscription.
Fundraising and valuation
The IPO comprises an entirely fresh issue of 27 crore shares. At the upper end of the price band, Jio Platforms is expected to raise approximately ₹30,213 crore, valuing the company at around $108 billion.
Reliance Industries Ltd and the company’s other existing shareholders are not selling any shares through the offering.
Before the public issue, Jio Platforms raised approximately ₹8,110 crore from 212 anchor investors on October 19, allotting shares at ₹1,119 apiece, the upper end of the price band.
The anchor investor offering reportedly attracted bids exceeding ₹2.5 lakh crore, more than 30 times the allocation available. Participants included global asset managers and sovereign wealth funds such as BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, GIC and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
Use of IPO proceeds
Jio Platforms plans to utilise up to ₹27,500 crore from the proceeds to repay borrowings of its wholly owned subsidiary, Reliance Jio Infocomm. The remaining funds are intended to support capital expenditure, investments in technology and digital services, and working capital requirements.
Jio Platforms Managing Director Akash Ambani has highlighted the company’s ambitions beyond telecommunications, with technology, artificial intelligence and cloud services expected to play a significant role in its future growth strategy.
He has pointed to the company’s in-house 5G core, cloud-native radio access network and software platform, which serves 533.3 million customers.
“Connectivity was the first product we built on that platform. Digital services, AI and cloud are what we are layering on top of it now,” Ambani said in an interview with PTI.
The public offering is scheduled to close on Friday, October 23, which also marks Akash Ambani’s birthday.
