Isha Ambani says Jio IPO marks a promise, renews Dhirubhai Ambani’s trust with investors

“My grandfather placed his dream in the hands of the people. Today, you have placed a part of your future in ours,” Isha said at Jio Platforms’ listing ceremony in Mumbai on Wednesday.

“We accept that faith with gratitude, humility, and a deep sense of duty.”

Jio Platforms listed at Rs 1,358 on the BSE, a 21.3% premium to its IPO price of Rs 1,119. The debut gave the company a market value of about Rs 12.5 lakh crore, making it India’s second-largest listed company by market capitalisation, behind parent Reliance Industries but ahead of peer Bharti Airtel.

Catch all the Jio IPO listing day action live here

The listing followed a record Rs 30,200-crore IPO that attracted more than Rs 7 lakh crore in demand. The issue was fully subscribed within 100 minutes of opening, while the Rs 5,500 crore qualified institutional buyer portion was subscribed within the first 10 minutes.

By the close of the third day, the IPO had been subscribed 22.2 times and the QIB portion 70.55 times. The issue received more than 1.38 crore applications, including those from retail and first-time investors.

Isha framed the listing as the latest chapter in the Reliance shareholder story, nearly five decades after Dhirubhai Ambani took Reliance Industries to ordinary Indian investors.

A few evenings before the listing, her father, Mukesh Ambani, had recalled his involvement in Reliance’s first public offering in 1977, when the company raised ₹2.82 crore at a valuation of ₹10 crore, Isha said.

Her grandfather had decided to take Reliance “to the people. Not to a few wealthy investors. To the people,” she said.

“Almost 50 years later, that trust has come full circle.”

The Jio IPO was structured as a fresh issue of 27 crore shares, with no offer-for-sale component. Jio Platforms plans to use ₹27,500 crore of the proceeds to repay or prepay borrowings, with the balance earmarked for general corporate purposes.

The IPO valuation of about ₹10.3 lakh crore, or approximately $109 billion, had already placed Jio Platforms among India’s most valuable listed companies before trading began. The first-day premium added about ₹2.2 lakh crore to its market value.

The listing also crystallised the market’s attempt to value Jio as more than a telecom business. The company is the parent of Reliance Jio Infocomm, India’s largest wireless operator, but its broader strategy includes fixed broadband, cloud, enterprise communications, artificial intelligence, connected devices, entertainment and digital services.

Jio was launched in 2016 after years of investment in an in-house technology and network platform. In earlier remarks, Isha had linked the origins of the business to a failed online college assignment around 2009-10, which led to a conversation about why India should be left behind in digital access.

Jio’s initial disruption came through affordable mobile data and rapid 4G adoption. The company’s next phase is focused on converting that scale into higher-value services and stronger monetisation.

Jio Platforms now serves more than 533 million customers, according to the analyst reports prepared around the listing. The company accounts for about 60% of India’s wireless data traffic and has built a large fixed-broadband business through JioFiber and AirFiber.

The brokerage reports initiated on the first day of trading identified tariff increases, subscriber additions, home broadband, 5G monetisation and digital-services expansion as the principal drivers of future earnings.

Nomura, Motilal Oswal Financial Services and Elara Securities all initiated coverage with Buy ratings. Their target prices ranged from ₹1,340 to ₹1,367, implying further upside from the IPO price.

Elara expects digital services revenue to grow at a compound annual rate of about 23% between fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2029, with EBITDA growth of about 36%. The brokerage expects Jio’s home-broadband subscriber base to rise from 27 million in fiscal 2026 to 66 million by fiscal 2029.

Motilal Oswal expects a tariff increase of about 15% from March 2027 and projects Jio Platforms’ consolidated revenue, EBITDA and profit to grow at compound annual rates of 14%, 15% and 20%, respectively, between fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2029.

Nomura said Jio’s focus is shifting from adding users to earning more from each customer. It expects Jio Platforms’ EBITDA to grow at about 13.5% annually during the same period and sees the company becoming net cash by fiscal 2029.

Isha said the company’s financial performance reflected the strength of its operating model.

“This year, Jio earned about $15.5 billion in revenue, and about $8 billion in real earnings,” she said. “Very few companies anywhere in the world have done this, that too in only 10 years old.”

She added that Jio was built on Mukesh Ambani’s first principles: “create real value for the customer, and strong earnings will follow.”

“That is our dharma,” she said.

Yet Isha emphasised that the company’s numbers were ultimately linked to its customers.

“But behind every number is a customer,” she said. “And to every customer: Jio aapne banaya.”

The next challenge for Jio Platforms is to justify its public-market valuation through sustained earnings growth. The company will need to demonstrate that its telecom scale can support tariff increases, higher average revenue per user, growing broadband monetisation and the expansion of digital businesses.

Isha said the Ambani family would continue to build on Dhirubhai’s promise to investors and customers.

“Akash, Anant, and I renew my grandfather’s promise to every investor and every customer. We will honour your trust with integrity, and we will keep building,” she said.

She also praised her brother Akash Ambani, who has led Jio’s operating journey, and invited him to speak after her address.

Isha credited Mukesh Ambani with repeatedly identifying opportunities before they became apparent to others.

“Again and again, my father has seen a future others could not yet see,” she said. “Again and again, he has found the courage to build what others called impossible.”

For Jio Platforms, the listing marks the transition from a closely held growth story into a publicly traded company whose market value will now be tested against execution, cash generation and the monetisation of its digital ambitions.

“And this is just the beginning,” Isha said.