Ambani’s Jio Platforms plans record $3.8 billion Indian IPO in Mumbai

MUMBAI: Indian ‌billionaire ​Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Platforms has approved plans to list in Mumbai to raise around $3.8 billion, sources said, in what could be a record IPO for the country. The share listing aims to unlock value in ⁠a business that includes Reliance Infocomm, the world’s second-largest telecom operator by subscribers after China Mobile, with about 500 million users, and also houses AI, cloud and enterprise ‌network businesses. The IPO is targeting a fundraising of around 360 billion Indian rupees ($3.81 billion), three sources familiar with ‌the matter said, equal to about 2.9% of ‌its post-issue equity. Reliance did not respond to Reuters ‌queries. The final details could ‌change closer to the listing process. A company statement did not provide ​more details on ‌the IPO, but ​the prospectus was due to ⁠be filed later on Friday, Ambani said in a shareholder address. “The Jio IPO is described as the most ​important value creation ⁠milestone this ⁠year,” Ambani said. The company said it would issue up to 270 million new shares. In 2020, Jio raised funds ⁠from marquee global investors including Meta, Alphabet’s Google and Vista Equity Partners, diluting 33% of its stake. Jefferies has in the past valued the business at $180 billion. Those investors were betting on India’s rapidly expanding digital economy ‌of 1.4 billion people where smartphone penetration is accelerating, internet costs are ​among the lowest in the world, and a young, mobile-first population is moving online at scale. Jio says it currently has a roughly 60% share of India’s data traffic.