Jio Platforms’ initial public offering (IPO) has achieved a historic milestone, becoming the first public offer in the world to cross one crore applications. Sources confirmed this development on Friday, noting that the subscription figure surpassed the previous global record of approximately 97 lakh applications, which was set by Waaree Energies. This accomplishment also places the offering ahead of other notable Indian market records, including the recent response seen during the Bajaj Housing Finance IPO.
By 12:03 pm on the final day of the bidding process, the IPO had received bids for 136.32 crore shares against an offer of 19.75 crore shares, resulting in an overall subscription of nearly seven times. The surge in interest was particularly pronounced among Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs), who bid for 70.85 crore shares against the 4.90 crore reserved for them, reflecting a subscription rate of 14.46 times. Within this segment, domestic financial institutions, including banks and insurance companies, as well as foreign institutional investors, played a major role in driving the demand.
Non-Institutional Investors also demonstrated strong confidence, subscribing 9.45 times the portion allocated to them. Meanwhile, retail individual investors contributed significantly to the total, bidding 17.19 crore shares against the 8.50 crore shares on offer, reaching a subscription rate of 2.02 times. Both the shareholder and employee reservation portions were also oversubscribed, standing at 5.68 times and 2.48 times respectively.
The IPO consists entirely of a fresh issue of 27 crore shares. At the upper end of the price band, the company is set to raise approximately Rs 30,213 crore, valuing the business at roughly USD 108 billion. It is important to note that the parent company, Reliance Industries Ltd, along with existing shareholders, is not offloading any stakes in this offering. Ahead of the public opening on October 21, the company had already secured Rs 8,110 crore from 212 anchor investors on October 19, with shares allotted at Rs 1,119 each. That anchor book reportedly drew interest exceeding Rs 2.5 lakh crore from global asset managers and sovereign wealth funds, such as BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, GIC, and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
The capital raised through this public offering is earmarked for specific financial objectives. Jio Platforms intends to utilize up to Rs 27,500 crore of the proceeds to settle existing borrowings at its wholly-owned subsidiary, Reliance Jio Infocomm. The remaining funds are designated for broader capital expenditure, which includes investments in ongoing technology initiatives, digital service expansion, and general working capital requirements.
Akash Ambani, Managing Director of Jio Platforms, has previously emphasized that the company’s future strategy focuses on leveraging its network as a core technology foundation to drive growth in artificial intelligence, cloud services, and digital offerings. He noted that while connectivity was the primary product built on the platform, the firm is now layering additional digital services on top of its existing infrastructure to serve its customer base of over 533 million users. The public offer concluded on Friday, October 23.
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