Retail investors fully subscribe Jio IPO on second day

Appetite for the $3.2-billion IPO of billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Jio Platforms Ltd. kept building on Thursday, its second day of public bidding, with orders at 3.64 times the shares up for grabs and the retail portion now fully subscribed.

In what is set to be India's largest IPO and the first by Reliance Industries Ltd. in nearly 20 years, the listing is a key plank of Ambani’s long-term vision to turn the conglomerate from an oil-and-chemicals giant into an “everything company” spanning consumer, retail and technology.

Institutional investors have led the demand, with qualified institutional buyers bidding for 9.42 times their quota, exchange data showed. Retail investors, for whom around a third of the issue is reserved, covered their own portion in full by the first two hours in the second of three days of public bidding.

The IPO has generated strong retail demand in the primary market thanks largely to the Reliance brand, with a reach well beyond Jio Platforms' telecom business, according to an analyst tracking the IPO.

For many Indian families, shareholdings in Reliance Industries have long been a trusted nest egg, with its Mumbai-traded shares rising around 330-fold since 1990. Announcing the listing in June, Ambani described it as “a deeply emotional moment for me, for the entire Reliance family, and millions of its shareholders”.

Jio helped put streaming, digital payments and online services within reach of millions of Indians through cheap data and free calls. Its next phase leans on 5G, home broadband and cloud and AI services.

On its first day of public bidding, the overall offering was filled within 90 minutes of opening, driven by institutions that snapped up their portion within minutes. It was a rare start for an IPO of this size in India, where large offerings tend to see most bids in the final hours.

The IPO values Jio Platforms at up to $108.3 billion, potentially making it one of India's biggest companies by market capitalisation when trading starts on 28 October.