Reliance Jio IPO: Massive bids top $25 bn amount for anchor book! How Mukesh Ambani firm attracted top-notch investors
Reliance Jio Platforms’ upcoming initial public offering (IPO) has attracted massive institutional interest, with bids for its anchor investor portion exceeding $25 billion or more than 30 times the shares available for allocation. Jio Platforms allocated shares worth more than ₹8,100 crore to anchor investors, according to a company filing.
The strong demand highlights the attention global investment heavyweights are paying to Mukesh Ambani’s telecom and digital services business ahead of its stock market debut.
The company opened its anchor book on Monday, October 19, allowing institutional investors to bid for shares ahead of the public issue, which opens on Wednesday, October 21.
Jio Platforms’ anchor book attracted bids from prominent international and domestic institutions, underlining the breadth of interest in the offering. The anchor investor portion was reserved exclusively for institutions, which could bid for up to 30% of the overall offering.
The company allotted 7.24 crore shares to institutional investors, reflecting strong demand ahead of what is expected to be India’s biggest-ever IPO.
Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) received the largest allocation at ₹500 crore, accounting for 6.17% of the anchor book. New World Fund Inc. was allotted shares worth ₹486.27 crore, followed by the Government of Singapore at ₹340.93 crore, SBI Focused Fund at ₹315 crore and BNP Paribas Financial Markets – ODI at ₹303.25 crore.
Domestic mutual funds accounted for a significant share of the allocation, receiving 2.48 crore shares worth ₹2,785 crore, or 34.34% of the anchor book. The allotment was spread across 95 schemes belonging to 25 fund houses.
Life insurers and pension funds were allotted 97.4 lakh shares worth ₹1,090 crore, representing 13.44% of the total anchor allocation.
The list of overseas investors included major asset managers such as BlackRock, Fidelity, Capital Group, T. Rowe Price, Schroders, JPMorgan Asset Management, Franklin Templeton and Janus Henderson. Sovereign and public investment institutions participating in the anchor book included the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Jio’s appeal rests on its scale in India’s telecom market and its ambitions to expand beyond connectivity into cloud computing, enterprise technology, entertainment and artificial intelligence (AI).
The company has more than 500 million subscribers, making it India’s largest mobile operator.
“India’s largest digital connectivity platform with 533mn subscribers and ~60% of the country’s wireless data traffic. Its extensive 5G network and 14mn JioAirFiber customers provide a strong foundation for future growth,” broekrage house Motilal Oswal said in a recent report.
Jio Platforms’ revenue and net profit recorded compound annual growth rates of approximately 16% and 18%, respectively, between FY24 and FY26, reaching ₹1.47 lakh crore and ₹30,049 crore. Its EBITDA margin expanded to around 51.9%. In the June 2026 quarter, revenue increased 11.8% year-on-year, while EBITDA rose 15%.
The company is also seeing gradual improvement in average revenue per user (ARPU), which climbed from ₹181.7 in FY24 to ₹214 in FY26 and ₹215.6 in the June 2026 quarter.
MOFSL also added that further gains could come from higher data usage, tariff increases and the expansion of fixed broadband services.
Beyond connectivity, Jio has opportunities to grow through its proprietary 5G technology, a portfolio of 7,220 patent applications, and services spanning cloud computing, enterprise solutions and artificial intelligence. However, telecom connectivity remains its primary earnings engine, and the ability of newer digital businesses to generate revenue at scale is yet to be established.
“At ₹1,119, Jio is valued at ~34x post-issue FY26 earnings, below Bharti Airtel’s ~40x trailing P/E. Net leverage is low at 0.36x, and fresh issue proceeds will primarily support repayment of borrowings at RJIL. However, ROCE of ~10.8% and ARPU below Airtel’s remain key monitorables. However, investors will need to monitor Jio’s return on capital employed (RoCE), which stands at around 10.8%, as well as its ARPU, which remains below Bharti Airtel’s,” said the brokerage.
It recommended investors to SUBSCRIBE for both listing gains and long term. Jio offers a combination of market leadership, healthy earnings growth and future opportunities in broadband, enterprise technology and AI. For long-term investors, the key monitorables will be ARPU growth, tariff hikes and the monetisation of digital services, it added.
Jio Platforms is seeking to raise ₹30,213 crore through a fresh issue of shares, with no offer for sale by existing shareholders. The offering has a price band of ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 per share and is expected to value the company at approximately $108.3 billion at the upper end of the band.
The public issue opens on October 21 and closes on October 23, with listing scheduled for October 28.
A substantial portion of the IPO proceeds will be used to repay or prepay borrowings at Reliance Jio Infocomm, the company’s telecom subsidiary. Jio plans to allocate up to ₹27,500 crore towards this purpose, with the remaining proceeds intended for general corporate purposes.
The offering is also significant for Reliance Industries, whose last major offering was the listing of Reliance Petroleum in 2006. Jio’s IPO comes amid strong activity in India’s primary market and growing interest in large technology and digital businesses.
Pranati Deva is a seasoned financial journalist with over a decade of experience in high-pressure newsroom environments, currently working as a Senior Sub Editor at LiveMint. Over the years, she has developed a reputation for sharp editorial judgement, a strong grasp of market dynamics, and the ability to translate complex financial developments into clear, engaging stories for a wide audience. <br><br> Her core areas of coverage include stock markets, leading listed companies, currencies, and commodities, with a particular strength in fast-paced, real-time market reporting. She is known for handling breaking market news, earnings-driven stock movements, and macroeconomic developments with speed, accuracy, and context—qualities that are essential in financial journalism. <br><br> Pranati has built a diverse and credible professional track record across some of India’s most respected news organisations, including MintGenie, CNBC-TV18, Business Standard and EconomicTimes.com. During her stints at these platforms, she produced data-driven market stories, curated and steered live blogs during volatile trading sessions, and conducted interviews with market veterans, fund managers, economists, and industry experts. Her work often combines on-ground reporting with analytical depth, helping readers make sense of daily market fluctuations and longer-term trends. An alumnus of the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communications and Hansraj College, University of Delhi, Pranati brings a strong academic foundation to her journalism. She specialises in real-time financial reporting, with a keen focus on precision, balance, and insight, aiming to decode market movements in a way that is both informative and accessible to readers across experience levels.
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