*Jio Platforms Ltd'*s ₹30,213-crore IPO achieved a historic milestone by becoming India's largest public offering to date, with the issue fully subscribed within 100 minutes of opening on Wednesday. The IPO, priced in the band of ₹1,065-1,119 per share, demonstrates overwhelming investor interest as it approaches its October 23 closure. Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) led the subscription at 16.27 times, while the anchor book was allocated to 212 investor accounts at ₹1,119 per share, including major institutional players like LIC, BlackRock, Fidelity, Singapore's GIC, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, BNP Paribas, Allianz, JPMorgan and several Indian mutual fund houses. The issue comprises 27 crore fresh shares with no offer-for-sale component, making it the fastest mega issue to cross full subscription since the ₹11,605 crore LG Electronics India offering in October last year. Investors subscribed more than seven times the shares allotted, with total demand now exceeding $15 billion when assuming bids were largely placed at the top end of the price band.
Several IPO-bound companies are strategically delaying their share sales to avoid competing with Jio Platforms' massive offering. According to reports from The Economic Times, these firms are following the market adage of not standing in front of a freight train, as Jio's ₹30,213 crore issue represents India's largest ever IPO. The strategy comes as companies seek to avoid clashing with an offering that could dominate investor attention and significantly impact market liquidity.
As of 12:57 pm on Friday, Jio Platforms' IPO was subscribed 7.64 times overall, with strong institutional demand driving the subscription. The QIB category led with 16.27 times subscription, followed by non-institutional investors at 10.45 times, while retail investors subscribed 2.14 times and employee reservation segment saw 2.57 times subscription. The grey market premium stands at ₹245 per share as of 11:37 am on Friday, indicating an expected listing gain of 21.89% when the stock debuts on October 28. At the upper end of the price band, Jio Platforms is valued at around ₹10.3 lakh crore, with the company planning to use ₹27,500 crore of proceeds to repay or prepay borrowings and the balance for general corporate purposes.
October has seen mixed activity in the primary market, with nine IPOs raising approximately ₹12,000 crore compared to 23 issues that mobilised ₹22,453 crore in August and 34 issues that raised ₹39,381 crore in September. As reported by The Economic Times, Paras Healthcare's ₹1,450-crore offering remains the only active issue currently, with Jio Platforms' IPO open for subscription from October 21-23. The ₹30,213 crore Jio Platforms issue represents India's largest ever IPO, significantly overshadowing other market activity.
Brokerages endorse Jio Platforms as a long-term compounder for India's digital economy, with Shriram Research calling it a "core structural compounder" citing market leadership, double-digit EBITDA growth, declining leverage and growing home broadband business. At ₹1,119 per share, Jio is valued at around 33.3 times FY26 earnings, which is below Bharti Airtel's reported P/E of about 40.7 times. Geojit recommended subscribing for medium- to long-term investors, while Systematix maintained a long-term positive outlook despite valuation concerns. The company's customer base stands at 533.3 million with ₹215.6 average revenue per user in Q2 FY26, while it carries around 60% of India's wireless data traffic and has 28.6 million fixed-broadband customers.
