Jio Platforms shares jump 21% in Mumbai debut after India's largest IPO
The telecom and digital services company opened well above its offer price after a $3.2 billion listing that drew bids for more than 22 times the shares available.
Jio Platforms shares opened 21% above their offer price in Mumbai on Wednesday, October 28, after the Indian telecom and digital services company raised about $3.2 billion in the country's largest initial public offering. The debut put a market value of about ₹12.5 trillion on Jio, making it India's second-most valuable listed company behind its parent, Reliance Industries, according to TechCrunch.
The stock opened at ₹1,358 a share, against an IPO price of ₹1,119. CNBC reported a 21.4% rise during the debut session; those figures describe early trading rather than a closing price.
How much demand did Jio's IPO draw?
The offering raised ₹302 billion, or about $3.2 billion, according to CNBC. TechCrunch reported that bids covered 22.19 times the shares on sale and that more than 13.8 million people applied. The offer ran from October 21 to 22, following strong demand from both large institutions and individual investors.
CNBC put demand for the qualified institutional portion at 70.55 times the shares allocated to that group, compared with 2.72 times for retail investors. Akash Ambani, Jio's managing director, said ahead of the listing that the IPO had been fully subscribed within 95 minutes of opening, CNBC reported.
What the listing means for Reliance and Jio
The listing is Reliance Industries' first in two decades, Reuters reported. Reliance still owns more than 66% of Jio Platforms, while a Meta affiliate holds nearly 10% and Google International owns 7.7%, according to LSEG ownership data cited by CNBC. Jio's telecom business serves more than 530 million customers, Reuters reported.
Jio plans to use up to ₹275 billion of the IPO proceeds to repay debt at its telecom subsidiary, Reliance Jio Infocomm, with the rest for general corporate purposes, TechCrunch reported. The company had total borrowings of ₹613.7 billion as of June 30. In the fiscal year ended March 2026, it reported ₹300.5 billion in profit on ₹1.47 trillion in revenue, with both measures up about 15% from a year earlier.
Several brokerages viewed Jio's valuation as attractive, Reuters reported, while identifying competition, heavy capital spending and possible changes to Indian telecom rules on spectrum, licensing and fees as risks. Their assessments offer a view of the business after listing; they do not establish what drove the opening gain.
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Sources and context
- Jio shares surge 21% in market debut after blockbuster India IPOTechCrunch
- Ambani's Jio surges 21% in Mumbai debut after record US$3.2 billion India IPOReuters, republished by Channel NewsAsia
- Meta- and Google-backed Jio Platforms’ shares soar over 21% on trading debut after record IPOCNBC
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.