THE GIST

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In what could be India's largest IPO ever, Mukesh Ambani's telecom juggernaut Jio Platforms filed its draft IPO papers targeting $3.8 billion. That clears the bar set by Hyundai Motor India's 278.7 billion rupee ($2.95 billion) offering in 2024, and then some.

WHAT HAPPENED

Jio's board approved the draft prospectus, which proposes a fresh issue of up to 27 crore shares at a 10 rupee face value. Final pricing comes later, through book-building.

Reuters sources put the listing target at 360 billion rupees ($3.81 billion). Most of that money goes straight to paying down debt, roughly 275 billion rupees ($2.92 billion) owed by subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm. Clearing that balance frees up cash for 5G expansion, broadband growth, and the AI and cloud build-out.

Jio is the world's second-largest telecom operator by single-country subscribers. With over 526.94 million subscribers, it trails only China Mobile and controls nearly 50% of India's wired and wireless internet market. For comparison, Bharti Airtel holds roughly 35% share and trades at a price-to-earnings ratio above 42 times. Valuation estimates for Jio have ranged all over the map, from $130 billion to $180 billion.

WHY IT MATTERS

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This one has been a long time coming. Ambani first floated a Jio listing back in 2019, then shelved a planned 2025 IPO after deciding the telecom business and Jio's AI and digital units needed more revenue and subscribers first. That delay alone wiped roughly $6 billion off Reliance's market value in a single session.

Now it's time to take the plunge. Reliance shares have slipped 15% this year, among the worst performers in the Sensex. The Iran war that rattled global markets cooled India's IPO pipeline and bumped the country from its spot as the world's fifth-largest stock market, behind Taiwan and South Korea. That's a steep comedown for a market that ranked second globally for primary equity issuance in 2025, raising $21.6 billion.

There are signs the market is picking up the pace again, but Jio might be elbowing for room with rivals just as big. The National Stock Exchange is running its own roughly $3.3 billion IPO in parallel, which means two mega-listings fighting over the same pool of institutional capital in a market still digesting a war. If both clear cleanly, it's a strong signal India's primary markets have stabilized. If either gets repriced or delayed again, that tells a very different story about how much confidence has actually come back.