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Jio Platforms, India's largest telecom operator, filed its draft red herring prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India on Friday. The move paves the way for what could become the country's largest-ever initial public offering.
According to market estimates, the business's IPO of 27 crore shares is expected to raise up to Rs. 36,000 crore, valuing Jio Platforms at approximately Rs. 12.5 lakh crore. The company already has investments from Meta and Google.
The full fundraise will be done through the issuance of new shares, some of which are expected to be reserved for RIL's existing shareholders, indicating that none of the existing investors will cash out through an offer for sale.
The DRHP stated that the profits from the IPO will be used to pay down the Rs. 27,500-crore debt and for other corporate purposes. Jio's market debut comes at a challenging time for Indian equities
The country's capital markets have cooled in recent months as the US-Israel-Iran conflict unsettles global investors, triggering volatility and weakening risk appetite. However, the second half of this calendar year promises to be intriguing, since the NSE, India's largest stock exchange, filed a DRHP with Sebi on Thursday.
Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Jio's parent RIL, called the prospectus filing "a deeply emotional moment for me, for the entire Reliance Family, and millions of its shareholders" in an announcement.
Ambani said in his address to RIL shareholders at the company's annual meeting, “Akash, Isha, and Anant are leading the Jio IPO process and will oversee the next generation of value creation potential in the future. The proposed Jio listing will demonstrate to the world that India can build technological enterprises of global scale, capability, and value.”
Also Read: Reliance AGM 2026: AI Push, Jio IPO Plans, and Data Center Expansion
RIL, which owns slightly more than 66% of Jio, stunned the Covid-ravaged corporate world by raising funds from global investors, including Meta, Google, private equity firms Vista Equity Partners, KKR, General Atlantic, and Silver Lake, as well as sovereign funds such as the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, by selling roughly 33% of its stake in 2020.
These investors are betting on India's rapidly expanding digital economy of 1.4 billion people, where smartphone penetration is increasing, internet costs are among the lowest in the world, and a young, mobile-first populace is migrating online on a massive scale.
Jio Platforms has expanded its offerings beyond telecom to include AI, cloud and enterprise network services, as well as app development. In FY26, Jio Platforms had a topline of Rs. 1.47 lakh crore and a profit after tax of Rs. 30,000 crore.
