A man speaks on his phone as he walks past a Jio store in Mumbai, India, on March 22, 2023. Reliance Jio had expanded its 5G services to 41 additional cities, taking its network presence to 406 cities across India, according to an Indian media report.
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Jio Platforms, the digital services powerhouse backed by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, filed draft papers for an initial public offering on Friday, setting the stage for one of India’s most closely watched market debuts.
According to an exchange filing, the offering will include the issuance of up to 270 million shares. In its draft prospectus, Jio Platforms said the proceeds would be used to reduce debt at its subsidiary, Reliance Jio Infocomm, India’s largest wireless operator.
Speaking at Reliance Industries’ annual shareholder meeting on Friday, Ambani framed the planned listing as a milestone for India’s technology ambitions. “The proposed listing of Jio will demonstrate to the world that India can build technology companies of global scale, global capability, and global value,” he said.
Ambani’s flagship company, Reliance Industries, owns more than 66% of Jio Platforms. Google International holds a 7.7% stake, while Meta Platforms owns nearly 10%, according to LSEG data.
Jio Platforms controls Reliance Jio Infocomm, which serves more than 526.94 million subscribers in India. That gives the company close to half of the country’s wired and wireless internet market, based on data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom service provider with nearly 35% market share, is also the nation’s third most valuable company. Its market capitalization stands above $120 billion, according to LSEG data, and it trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of more than 42 times.
In the annual shareholder meeting last year, Ambani had announced that the business would be listed before the middle of this year. However, the start of the Iran war has delayed many large IPOs in the country as investment sentiment soured.
The Indian stock market is underperforming global peers so far in 2026, falling over 9%. It lost its position as the fifth-largest market to Taiwan, and later fell below South Korea.
India is seen as an anti-artificial intelligence trade, with no major plays in the sector which has captured the attention of global investors. The economic challenges from the Middle East conflict further eroded investor interest from India.
But as war moves to peace in the Middle East, there are signs of a revival. On Thursday, India’s largest stock exchange, the National Stock Exchange, filed its IPO papers.
Both Jio Platforms and NSE are expected to be among the biggest IPOs ever to hit the Indian market. Hyundai Motor India’s $3.3 billion IPO in 2024 holds the record for the country’s largest so far.
