Jio Platforms Ltd. is set to go public in India this year, billionaire Mukesh Ambani announced on Friday. The telco’s board has approved the issuance of up to 270 million (27 crore) new shares for Rs.10 each (roughly $0.11). The company will be filing its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Friday, marking a major step in its IPO process. The DRHP is essentially the fact sheet prepared by the company that outlines its IPO proposal in India.
Ambani, 69, made the historic announcement at the 49th Annual General Meeting of the Reliance Industries (RIL) in Mumbai on Friday.
“This is deeply emotional moment for me, for the entire Reliance family, and for millions of its shareholders,” said the Chairman and Managing Director of the Reliance Industries which is presently valued at $212 billion (roughly Rs.17.72 lakh crore) as per data by Screener.
Ambani’s three children—Isha, Akash, and Anant—are set to spearhead the IPO process and lead this telecom-to-tech giant’s transition into the family’s younger guard.
Outlining Jio’s AI plans, Ambani said that the company is aiming to democratize easy access to artificial intelligence in the world’s most populated country.
RIL’s Reliance Intelligence is already working on AI systems that will support 22 Indian languages and be powered by gigawatt-scale AI data centers for large scale AI research and development. Jio will serve as the massive distribution network that will deliver Reliance’s AI services to 95 percent of the Indian population that are connected to the network, as per official claims.
The telco is also working with Meta to provide it with a 168 megawatts AI-focussed data centre. This facility will be based in Jamnagar, Gujarat and is expected to be ready by 2028.
In 2020, Meta purchased 9.99 percent equity in Jio for $5.7 billion. This upcoming IPO sets the stage for a massive win for the tech giant, which could log double its investment on paper without having to sell a single share.
It is, however, noteworthy that the multi-billion-dollar profit for Meta is trapped on a screen. This is primarily because this IPO only creates new shares rather than selling old ones. So, Meta cannot actually cash out and use the massive payout to fund its own expensive AI and metaverse projects in the U.S.
Jio’s listing is reportedly being viewed as India’s largest IPO ever which could be worth as much as $4 billion.
Source: SEBI
As of now, the bid issue date has not been disclosed by Jio.
JPMorgan. HSBC, ICICI, and Jefferies among others have been named among the book running lead managers for this IPO.
Commenting on the development, Neil Shah, Co-Founder and Research Vice President at Counterpoint Research, drew a stark comparison to global markets. He noted that while a multi-billion-dollar IPO comes across as historic for India, it makes for just a fraction of the multi-trillion-dollar scale of IPOs being seen in the U.S. Shah was referring to the recent blockbuster SpaceX IPO which took the company valuation to $2.2 trillion on market debut, making Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire.
