Reliance Industries Limited’s Jio Platforms has created new records in India’s IPO record books even before the close of its initial public offering (IPO). This digital unit achieved the largest ever issue size, fastest subscription for a mega IPO and tremendous demand from anchor investors. According to information available on BSE’s website, Rs. 30,213 crore issue was fully subscribed within 100 minutes of opening on Wednesday, making it the fastest subscribed IPO ever. This issue will remain open till October 23. Let’s talk about this record in detail…

The country’s largest IPO

The first record relates to the size of the issue. Jio’s IPO is set to become India’s largest IPO in terms of value, surpassing Hyundai Motor India’s ₹27,870 crore issue in 2024. At the upper end of the ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 price band, the Jio platform is valued at around Rs. 10.3 lakh crores. The issue involves 27 crore shares and is entirely a ‘fresh issue’ (offer of new shares). There is no ‘offer-for-sale’ (OFS) component, which means that existing investors do not sell their shares through this IPO. Out of the company issue proceeds of Rs. 27,500 crore it plans to use to repay or prepay its debt, while the remaining amount will be used for general corporate purposes.

A record for the fastest subscription

Another record has been set in the speed of delivery. According to information available on BSE’s website, Rs. 30,213 crore issue was fully subscribed within 100 minutes of opening on Wednesday, making it the fastest subscribed IPO ever. The portion reserved for ‘Qualified Institutional Buyers’ (QIB) was fully subscribed in the first 10 minutes and almost doubled (2x) in less than 30 minutes. Ultimately, the QIB portion was subscribed 2.86 times, while the entire issue was subscribed 0.83 times. Subsequently, the entire book (total subscription) was filled within 100 minutes of issue launch.

Anchor Book Record

The third record was made before the opening of the public issue. Jio Platforms Rs. 8,110 crore for an anchor book of around Rs. 2.5 lakh crore bids were received, which was more than 30 times the available shares. This is the largest ever ‘anchor demand’ for an Indian IPO. Anchor investors were allotted shares at ₹1,119 per share (which is the upper end of the price band). This allocation was given to 212 investor accounts and schemes. Investor groups include global asset managers, sovereign wealth funds, domestic mutual funds, insurance companies and pension funds.

Investors include LIC, BlackRock, Fidelity, GIC of Singapore, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, BNP Paribas, Allianz, JP Morgan and several Indian mutual fund houses. Local mutual funds accounted for a large share of the anchor allocation (initial allocation). 95 mutual fund schemes received 2.49 crore shares worth around ₹ 2,785 crore, which is 34.34% of the anchor book. Additionally, 22 insurance companies and pension fund accounts received shares worth around ₹1,090 crore. LIC was one of the largest anchor allottees, acquiring 44.68 lakh shares worth around ₹500 crore, which is 6.17% of the anchor stake.

Set high standards for all

This level of demand has set a high standard for the rest of the issue and has made the Jio platform one of the most talked about market developments in India this year. The IPO is also Reliance Industries’ first public offering in nearly two decades. This excellent response reflects investor interest in Reliance’s digital business. On the other hand, the market is also checking whether Jio can convert its large customer base into higher margin revenue through digital services, enterprise technology and artificial intelligence as customer addition is no longer the main driver of growth.

The company is far ahead of Telecom

Akash Ambani, managing director of Jio Platforms, has presented the company as a technology business whose opportunities extend far beyond telecom. “Connectivity is the first product we’ve built on that platform,” he said. Now we are adding things like digital services, AI and cloud on top of that. The issue is purely ‘primary’, which means existing investors such as Meta, Google, Public Investment Fund, KKR, Vista Equity Partners and Silver Lake are not exiting by selling their stake through the offer.