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Jio Platforms gets SEBI nod for proposed Rs 37,000 crore IPO
Issue may become India’s largest IPO, with Rs 27,500 crore earmarked for debt repayment
MUMBAI: Jio’s journey to the stock market has just got another signal boost. Jio Platforms Ltd has received the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) final observations for its proposed initial public offering, moving the Reliance Industries-backed digital and telecom holding company a step closer to a market debut that could become India’s largest IPO.
SEBI issued its observations on August 28, after Jio Platforms submitted its draft offer documents in June. The proposed issue is expected to exceed Rs 37,000 crore, which would put it ahead of Hyundai Motor India’s Rs 27,870 crore IPO and make it the country’s largest public issue if launched at that scale.
The final size, however, will depend on the issue structure and pricing.
Jio Platforms plans to issue up to 27 crore new equity shares, with no offer-for-sale component. In other words, existing shareholders are not looking to cash out through the IPO.
A sizeable chunk of the proposed proceeds is already earmarked for cleaning up the balance sheet. Up to Rs 27,500 crore from the net proceeds will be used to repay or prepay borrowings of Reliance Jio Infocomm, Jio Platforms’ telecom operating arm. The remaining funds will go towards general corporate purposes.
Jio Platforms is the holding company for Reliance Industries’ telecom and digital businesses and houses Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecom operator.
The company’s latest financial numbers underline the scale investors will be looking at. For the June quarter, revenue stood at Rs 45,961 crore, up 12 per cent year on year, while revenue from operations rose to Rs 39,173 crore.
EBITDA increased 15 per cent to Rs 20,865 crore, with the EBITDA margin improving to 53 per cent from 52 per cent. Profit after tax rose 9.2 per cent to Rs 7,764 crore.
Jio’s subscriber base also continued to expand, reaching 533.3 million at the end of the quarter, compared with 524.4 million in the preceding quarter and 498.1 million a year earlier. Its 5G subscriber base stood at 285 million.
Reliance Industries held a 66.43 per cent stake in Jio Platforms before the proposed IPO. Meta Platforms and Google were the next-largest shareholders, with 9.98 per cent and 7.73 per cent, respectively.
The proposed listing follows Jio Platforms’ major fundraising drive in 2020, when global investors including Meta, Google and several private-equity firms invested in the company.
With SEBI’s observations now in hand, Jio Platforms can move towards the remaining IPO formalities, including finalising its offer documents, price band and issue timetable. If the issue crosses the Rs 37,000 crore mark, the debut would not merely bring Jio to the public markets, it would reset the record for India’s biggest IPO.
