Jio Platforms IPO opens today: price band, lot size, dates and anchor book

Jio Platforms, the digital and telecom arm of Reliance Industries, opens its initial public offering to investors on Wednesday, 21 October. At up to ₹30,213 crore, the issue is set to be the largest share sale ever attempted on Indian bourses, and the first IPO from the Reliance group in about two decades.

Reuters has put the offer at roughly US$3.2 billion at the top of the range, which would overtake the US$2.9 billion raised by Hyundai Motor India in 2024, the previous record.

Price band, lot size and key dates

The company has fixed a price band of ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 for each share, which carries a face value of ₹10. The entire offer is fresh capital: 27 crore new shares, with no existing shareholder selling through an offer for sale.

Bids must be made in lots of 12 shares. That puts the smallest retail application at ₹13,428 at the upper end of the band, while an individual retail investor can apply for at most 14 lots, or 168 shares, worth ₹1,87,992.

Bidding closes on Friday, 23 October. According to the tentative timetable published by IPO trackers Chittorgarh and Groww, the basis of allotment is expected on Monday, 26 October, with refunds and credit of shares to demat accounts on Tuesday, 27 October. The shares are scheduled to begin trading on the NSE and BSE on Wednesday, 28 October. These dates can still change.

Of the net offer, half is earmarked for qualified institutional buyers, 35 per cent for retail individual investors and 15 per cent for non-institutional investors, according to Chittorgarh’s breakdown of the issue. Separate quotas have been set aside for employees, who get a discount of ₹54 a share, and for shareholders of Reliance Industries.

At the top of the band, the company would be valued at a little over ₹10.3 lakh crore after the issue. KFin Technologies is the registrar, and 19 banks, led by Kotak Mahindra Capital and including Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and SBI Capital Markets, are managing the sale.

Anchor book and use of funds

Ahead of the public opening, Jio Platforms raised ₹8,109.85 crore from anchor investors. It disclosed the allocation to the stock exchanges on the night of Monday, 19 October, reporting that it had allotted 7,24,74,066 shares at ₹1,119 each to 212 investors, Business Today reported. Among them were 85 overseas funds, 25 Indian mutual fund houses and 22 insurance and pension investors.

The same report said total institutional demand in the anchor round exceeded ₹2.5 lakh crore. Markets were shut on Tuesday, 20 October, for Dussehra, so Wednesday is the first trading session since the anchor allocation was announced.

The bulk of the money, ₹27,500 crore, is meant to repay all or part of loans taken by Reliance Jio Infocomm, the group’s mobile and broadband operator. Whatever is left will go towards general corporate purposes.

Measured by customers, Reliance Jio is the biggest mobile network in India. Reuters said it has more than 530 million users and carries roughly 60 per cent of the country’s mobile data traffic. Restated figures summarised by Chittorgarh show profit after tax of about ₹30,050 crore for the year to March 2026, up from ₹26,120 crore the previous year, with revenue up 16 per cent.

Grey market and subscription

Grey market dealers were quoting a premium of ₹277 over the upper price band as of 9.02 am on Wednesday, according to tracker InvestorGain. That works out to about 25 per cent. The figure has climbed from ₹148 in early October. The grey market is unofficial and unregulated. Its premiums often swing sharply and are no guide to the actual listing price. They should not be read as investment advice.

Subscription data for the first day had not been released at the time of writing, around 9.25 am IST on Wednesday. Bidding numbers from the exchanges are usually updated through the day, and The Daily Rostrum will update this report as they come in.

This report is for information only and is not a recommendation to apply for, buy or sell any security. Readers should study the red herring prospectus and consult a registered adviser before investing.

Sources: Chittorgarh, Groww, Business Today, Reuters (via New Straits Times), InvestorGain