Platforms allotted shares worth ₹8,109.85 crore to 212 anchor investors at the top end of its price band, after institutional demand for the offering exceeded ₹2.5 lakh crore, more than 30 times the amount available in the anchor book, according to a stock exchange filing and people familiar with the matter.

The allotment of 7.24 crore shares at ₹1,119 apiece comes two days before the initial public offering opens for public subscription on Wednesday (October 21, 2026).

The strong demand underscores institutional investor interest in what is expected to be India’s largest IPO, although the extent to which it translates into broader public demand will become clearer once the offer opens.

Life Insurance Corporation of India received the largest allocation, worth ₹499.98 crore, accounting for 6.17% of the anchor portion. New World Fund Inc was allotted shares worth ₹486.27 crore, followed by the Government of Singapore at ₹340.93 crore, SBI Focused Fund at ₹315 crore and BNP Paribas Financial Markets — ODI at ₹303.25 crore.

Domestic mutual funds received 2.489 crore shares worth ₹2,784.96 crore, representing 34.34% of the anchor book, through 95 schemes across 25 fund houses. Life insurers and pension funds received 97.4 lakh shares worth ₹1,089.95 crore, or 13.44% of the total.

Both categories exceeded the allocations reserved for them under the red herring prospectus dated October 14, which earmarked 33.33% of the anchor portion for mutual funds and 6.67% cent for insurers and pension funds.

Global investment firms participating in the anchor book include BlackRock, Capital Group, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, Schroders, JPMorgan Asset Management, Franklin Templeton and Janus Henderson. Sovereign and public investment institutions include the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, alongside other long-term institutional investors.

Some large overseas and domestic institutions bid for allocations worth $750 million to more than $1 billion each, people familiar with the matter said.

Jio Platforms is seeking to raise about ₹30,213 crore through a fresh issue of up to 27 crore shares, at a price band of ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 apiece. The offering values the company at around $108 billion, according to the offer documents.

The IPO will open on October 21 and close on October 23.

Proceeds will partly be used to repay debt at its telecom subsidiary, with the remainder earmarked for general corporate purposes. Reliance Industries Ltd, controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, will retain a majority stake in Jio Platforms after the listing.

Jio Platforms has grown into one of the world’s largest mobile operators by subscriber numbers since Reliance entered the telecom market a decade ago.

The business has expanded beyond mobile connectivity into broadband, digital entertainment, cloud and enterprise services, making it the central part of Reliance’s push into India’s digital economy.

The company had 533.3 million subscribers as of June 2026 and carried nearly 60% of India’s data traffic, according to reported company figures.

The listing will give public-market investors direct exposure to a business that has so far operated as a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. Its scale and the breadth of institutional participation make the offering a closely watched test of investor appetite for large Indian equity issuances.

The anchor book, which allows institutional investors to receive shares before the public subscription period, represents about 27% of the total IPO. Demand exceeding 30 times the anchor allocation, alongside subscriptions at the top of the price band, provides an early indication of institutional appetite for the offering.

However, strong anchor demand does not guarantee similar enthusiasm from retail investors or ensure gains after listing. Investors will weigh Jio’s subscriber base and opportunities in digital services against competitive pressures, regulatory risks, capital requirements and its ability to translate scale into sustained revenue and profit growth, analysts said.

The offering also provides a measure of the Indian market’s capacity to absorb a transaction of this size, with domestic mutual funds, insurers and pension funds accounting for nearly half of the anchor allocation. The public subscription will offer a clearer indication of whether that institutional confidence extends across the wider investor base.

Published – October 20, 2026 02:00 am IST

Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL), the digital and telecom arm of Reliance Industries, filed its red herring prospectus on Wednesday (October 14, 2026) for an initial public offering that is widely expected to be India’s largest, Reliance said in a filing.

The IPO is a fresh issue of up to 27 crore equity shares of ₹10 face value each. The offer opens for subscription on Wednesday, October 21, and closes on Friday, October 23. Anchor investor bidding is on Monday, October 19.

The company has set a price band of ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 per share. The IPO committee of Jio Platforms’ board approved the band at a meeting on Wednesday (October 14, 2026), the filing said. Eligible employees bidding in the employee reservation portion will get a discount of ₹54 per share. Investors must bid for at least 12 shares and in multiples of 12 thereafter. At the cap price, one lot would cost ₹13,428.

. At the cap price, that works out to ₹30,213 crore, by calculation. That is about 8% above the record set by Hyundai Motor India, whose ₹27,858.75 crore IPO in 2024 holds the top spot.

It is also roughly 47% above the next largest, Life Insurance Corporation of India’s ₹20,557.23 crore offering.

Jio’s offer, however, differs from those two in structure. Hyundai’s issue was entirely an offer for sale by its parent, and so was LIC’s issue, by the government.

The IPO will offer fresh issue only, with no offer-for-sale component, so the proceeds would go to the company rather than to selling shareholders.

The shares are expected to list on October 28.

The issue includes two reserved portions – up to ₹500 crore for eligible JPL employees and up to ₹2,500 crore for eligible Reliance shareholders, according to the filing.

These are individuals and Hindu undivided families (HUFs) who hold Reliance shares as of October 14.

According to the draft prospectus filed in June, JPL’s consolidated revenue from operations rose 14.6% to ₹1,46,885 crore in the year to March 2026, from ₹1,28,218 crore a year earlier.

Its net profit climbed 15.1% to ₹30,049 crore from ₹26,109 crore rupees. Revenue was ₹1,09,558 crore in FY24, with profit of ₹21,423 crore.

The company’s EBITDA rose 18.8% to ₹76,255 crore, a margin of 51.91 per cent. It had more than 524 million subscribers, and average revenue per user (ARPU) was ₹214 in the March 2026 quarter.

The total borrowings fell 3.1% year-on-year to ₹70,781 crore, though return on capital employed slipped to 10.76 per cent.

The draft prospectus had said proceeds would be used to prepay certain borrowings of material subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) and for general corporate purposes. Because the offer is entirely a fresh issue, the money goes to the company and not to selling shareholders.

The draft prospectus had flagged heavy dependence on the promoter group.

Reliance Retail is the sole distributor of Jio’s pre-paid services, and pre-paid revenue through it made up 77.08% of consolidated revenue from operations in FY26.

JPL filed its draft prospectus on June 19. Reliance held 66.43% of JPL before the IPO. Meta and Google together hold about 17.7 per cent.

The issue has 19 book-running lead managers, including Kotak Mahindra Capital, Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, with KFin Technologies as registrar.

Published – October 14, 2026 09:20 pm IST

Jio Platforms Managing Director Akash Ambani.
| Photo Credit: PTI