In what marks the largest public offering in Indian history, Jio Platforms—the flagship telecom arm of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries—sold out its entire $3.2 billion (approx. 4 trillion won) IPO just two hours after public subscriptions opened. This represents the Reliance Group’s first major stock issuance in 20 years since 2006, and is set to be recorded as the largest initial public offering in the history of the Indian stock market.

Closing Subscriptions in Record Time with Backing from Heavyweights Like Meta and Google

Backed solidly by tech giants such as Meta and Alphabet's Google, Jio Platforms boasts a subscriber base exceeding 500 million (misstated as 50,000 in a brief conversational slip in the original text), capturing nearly half of India's total telecom users. This makes it the second-largest telecommunications company in the world by single-country scale, trailing only China Mobile.

The IPO’s price band was set at 1,065 to 1,119 rupees per share, valuing the company at up to $108.3 billion (approx. 142 trillion won). When official stock trading commences on October 28, it is expected to establish itself as one of India's most valuable corporations, rivaling competitor Bharti Airtel’s market capitalization of $123.3 billion.

Typically, during large-scale IPOs in India, institutional investors wait until the final deadline to participate, resulting in sluggish first-day momentum. In fact, past opening-day subscription rates on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) averaged 42%, while Hyundai Motor India’s subscription rate stood at just 18%. However, Jio Platforms demonstrated an explosive market response by logging a 3.92x subscription rate for shares allocated to institutional investors alone.

Aishvarya Dadheech, founder of Fident Asset Management, analyzed, "Jio has completely transformed India's telecommunications landscape and presented a very reasonable valuation backed by solid fundamentals."

A Decade-In-The-Making Revolution Aligned with India’s Holiday Season

Jio’s telecommunications business was launched in 2016 under the leadership of Akash Ambani, son of Chairman Mukesh Ambani. At the time, the company aggressively slashed data costs to near-free levels, exponentially driving up internet usage among Indian citizens and rapidly absorbing market share from legacy competitors like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.

For the fiscal year ending in March, Jio Platforms reported revenues of $15.5 billion and a net income of $3.2 billion. Ahead of the public offering, a pre-IPO round targeting global and domestic investors drew over $2.5 billion—with participants including the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and BlackRock—leading to a preferential allocation of $853 million worth of shares.

The listing coincided with Diwali, the major Hindu festival season. In Indian culture, this period is believed to bring good fortune for new purchases and investments, providing a distinct advantage for the offering's success. Reliance pulled out all the stops, advancing October salary payouts for its workforce of over 400,000 employees by some 15 days while actively assisting staff with opening subscription accounts.

Proving Robust Fundamentals Amid Global AI Investment Caution

Recently, global stock markets have seen cautious investor sentiment amid rigorous market scrutiny directed toward artificial intelligence (AI) related companies. However, Jio Platforms appealed with a distinct advantage: over 90% of its total revenue is generated from stable telecommunications infrastructure and a massive subscriber foundation.

Initially, Jio’s listing was scheduled to meet Chairman Ambani’s five-year timeline pledged in 2019, but it faced delays, while plans earlier this year also encountered setbacks due to regional instability in the Middle East. After several postponements, this monumental listing serves as a crucial watershed moment continuing the reputation of India’s Reliance Group, which has driven a 330-fold surge in share price since its 1977 listing. The current offering officially wraps up this coming Friday, turning investor attention sharply toward its post-listing stock performance.

[ⓒ Global Economic Times. 무단전재-재배포 금지]