Jio Platforms IPO

The Jio Platforms IPO is the initial public offering of Jio Platforms Limited, the Reliance Industries subsidiary that owns Reliance Jio Infocomm , which the Analysys Mason industry report of 7 October 2026 commissioned for the issue ranks as India’s largest digital connectivity provider, with about 1.4 times the 4G and 5G subscribers of the second largest. It is a fresh issue of up to 27 crore equity shares at a price band of Rs 1,065 to Rs 1,119, open for bidding from 21 to 23 October 2026 under a red herring prospectus dated 14 October 2026, with listing on BSE and the National Stock Exchange scheduled for on or about 28 October 2026.

Fully subscribed at the upper band, the issue raises Rs 30,213 crore before the employee discount. That would exceed Hyundai Motor India’s Rs 27,855.68 crore offer of October 2024, the largest Indian initial public offering listed by 21 October 2026, and it would be the largest fresh issue on record, because the three largest before it, Hyundai, the NSE IPO of September 2026 and LIC in May 2022, were all offers for sale in which the company received nothing. Up to Rs 27,500 crore of the proceeds goes to prepay borrowings of Reliance Jio Infocomm.

Rs 2,500 crore of shares is reserved for individuals who held Reliance Industries shares on 14 October 2026, and those holders can bid in the retail category as well. Rs 500 crore more is reserved, at a Rs 54 discount, for permanent employees of Jio Platforms, Reliance Industries and Jio Platforms’ subsidiaries. Reliance Industries, which held 66.43 per cent before the issue, keeps 64.48 per cent after it, and the 13 investors who put Rs 1,52,056 crore into Jio Platforms in 2020, led by Meta and Google, sell nothing.

At the upper band the company is valued at about Rs 10.30 lakh crore, or 33.3 times its FY2025-26 earnings per share of Rs 33.63, on revenue of Rs 1,46,885.3 crore and profit of Rs 30,049.1 crore. The anchor book of Rs 8,109.85 crore was filled at Rs 1,119 on 19 October 2026, two days before bidding opened.

Offer structure and approvals

The Jio Platforms IPO is a 100 per cent book-built fresh issue of up to 270,000,000 equity shares of face value Rs 10, made under Regulation 6(1) of the SEBI ICDR Regulations 2018 , and the RHP marks the offer for sale as “Not applicable”. The issue is made under Rule 19(2)(b) of the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Rules 1957 read with ICDR Regulation 31, and allocated under Regulation 32(1), which applies to a profitable issuer eligible under Regulation 6(1).

Source: Jio Platforms Limited red herring prospectus, 14 October 2026; SEBI public issues filings.

The RHP cover names 19 book running lead managers: Kotak Mahindra Capital, Morgan Stanley India, BofA Securities India, Axis Capital, BNP Paribas, Citigroup Global Markets India, CLSA India, DAM Capital Advisors, Goldman Sachs (India) Securities, HDFC Bank, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India), ICICI Securities, IIFL Capital Services, Jefferies India, JM Financial, J.P. Morgan India, SBI Capital Markets, UBS Securities India and 360 ONE WAM. KFin Technologies is the registrar to the issue , and ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, State Bank of India and Axis Bank are the UPI sponsor banks named on NSE’s issue page.

Reservation categories and share allocation

The 27 crore shares divide into two reserved portions and a net issue. NSE’s post-anchor security parameters, which compute share counts at the Rs 1,119 upper band, give the following split.

Source: NSE, Security Parameters (Post Anchor), symbol JPL, October 2026; RHP, Issue Structure. The net issue of 24,29,63,789 shares is a webnotes.in calculation (total less the two reservations).

The 50:15:35 split is the Regulation 32(1) allocation for an issuer with a profit record; a loss-making issuer under Regulation 6(2) would have offered 75 per cent to institutions and only 10 per cent to retail. See IPO investor categories for how each category is allotted.

RIL shareholder reservation

The RIL Shareholders Reservation Portion of up to Rs 2,500 crore is open to “Individuals and HUFs (directly or in the name of karta) who are the public equity shareholders” of Reliance Industries as on the date of the red herring prospectus, which is 14 October 2026. A share bought on 15 October or later does not qualify the buyer, and institutions holding RIL shares are not eligible. Each eligible shareholder may bid up to Rs 2 lakh and may bid at the cut-off price .

An RIL shareholder may also bid in the retail or non-institutional category, and in the employee portion if eligible, and the RHP states that such bids “shall not be considered multiple Bids”. In practice a holder of RIL shares on the record date can lodge two applications from the same PAN, one in each category, or three if also an eligible employee. The procedure on one broker’s platform is in how to apply in the shareholder category .

Employee reservation and discount

Eligible employees bid in a Rs 500 crore employee reservation at a discount of Rs 54 a share, so they pay Rs 1,065 at the Rs 1,119 upper band. The RHP defines an eligible employee as a permanent employee of Jio Platforms, of Reliance Industries or of a Jio Platforms subsidiary, or a director of Jio Platforms, as of the RHP filing date; employees serving notice are excluded, and so are the promoter, the promoter group and directors holding more than 10 per cent. Employees of other Reliance Industries subsidiaries, such as Reliance Retail, do not qualify. An employee may bid up to Rs 5 lakh net of the discount, but allocation above Rs 2 lakh is made only if the portion is undersubscribed. ICDR Regulation 30(1)(a) caps any such discount at 10 per cent of the issue price; Rs 54 is 4.8 per cent of Rs 1,119.

Spill-over between categories

An unsubscribed employee portion passes first to the RIL shareholder portion, and an unsubscribed RIL shareholder portion to the employee portion. What remains of either then goes to the retail and non-institutional categories in the ratio 70:30 under ICDR Regulation 33(2)(d). A shortfall in the QIB portion cannot be filled by spill-over from other categories.

Price band, lot size and application sizes

The price band of Rs 1,065 to Rs 1,119 and the 12-share bid lot were published on NSE’s issue information page for symbol JPL, with a tick size of Re 1. The price band rule in ICDR Regulation 29 requires the cap to be at most 120 per cent of the floor; Rs 1,119 is 105.1 per cent of Rs 1,065.

Lot arithmetic is a webnotes.in calculation from the NSE lot size and price band. The thresholds follow ICDR Regulation 2(1)(jj) and the 32(3A) split; see small HNI and big HNI .

Retail and RIL shareholder bidders may tick cut-off, which commits them to the final issue price within the band; the ASBA block is made at the upper band either way. Non-institutional and QIB bidders must state a price. Under ICDR Regulation 49(4), when the retail category is oversubscribed each successful retail applicant receives at least the minimum lot of 12 shares, with the remainder allotted by lottery; IPO oversubscription and allotment describes the method.

Anchor book

The company allocated 7,24,74,066 equity shares to anchor investors at Rs 1,119, the top of the band, raising Rs 8,109.85 crore, according to its letter to BSE and NSE dated 19 October 2026 signed by company secretary Savithri Parekh. That is 59.7 per cent of the QIB portion against the 60 per cent ceiling for anchor investors .

Source: Jio Platforms Limited, intimation of anchor allocation to BSE and NSE, 19 October 2026. The “other” row is a webnotes.in calculation (total less the two reserved slices).

ICDR Schedule XIII reserves 40 per cent of the anchor book for domestic institutions: one-third for mutual funds and 6.67 per cent for life insurers and pension funds, with any shortfall in the second slice available to mutual funds. Mutual funds took 34.34 per cent against their 33.33 per cent reservation. The largest single line went to Life Insurance Corporation of India, 44,68,128 shares worth Rs 499.98 crore (6.17 per cent of the book), followed by New World Fund Inc at Rs 486.27 crore. Half of each anchor’s shares are locked in for 90 days from allotment and half for 30 days.

Timetable after the bid period

The RHP gives an indicative timetable, which SEBI’s T+3 listing rule (circular SEBI/HO/CFD/TPD1/CIR/P/2023/140 of 9 August 2023) reduces to three working days after closure.

Source: RHP, 14 October 2026, Terms of the Issue, Bid/Issue Programme.

Allotment status is published by the registrar, KFin Technologies, and by the exchanges once the basis of allotment is approved; the routes are in how to check IPO allotment on the registrar site . On listing day the share price is discovered in a pre-open call auction from 9 am to 10 am before normal trading starts.

The issue fails if it does not receive 90 per cent of the shares offered plus the Rule 19(2)(b) minimum, under ICDR Regulation 45, in which case all blocked amounts are released. The company must also have at least 1,000 allottees under Regulation 49(1).

Size and rank among Indian IPOs

Jio Platforms’ issue is the largest Indian IPO by amount if it is fully subscribed at the upper band. The table compares it with the three largest issues listed by 21 October 2026.

Sources: the four offer documents named. Jio Platforms amounts are a webnotes.in calculation (27 crore shares times each end of the band, before the Rs 54 employee discount, which is about Rs 25.35 crore at the upper band).

The ranking becomes final only when the issue price and the number of shares allotted appear in the prospectus filed after the bid period.

Use of proceeds

Jio Platforms will use up to Rs 27,500 crore of the net proceeds to prepay, in full or in part, borrowings of its material subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, all in FY2026-27, and the balance for general corporate purposes capped at 25 per cent of the gross proceeds under ICDR Regulation 7(2). The borrowings named include external commercial borrowings.

At 30 June 2026 the group’s fund-based borrowings stood at Rs 62,137.5 crore, of which Rs 59,140.2 crore sat in Reliance Jio Infocomm: Rs 29,917.1 crore of external commercial borrowings, Rs 20,613.7 crore of export credit agency loans, Rs 2,625.4 crore of term loans, Rs 5,000 crore of short-term loans and Rs 984 crore of commercial paper (RHP, Objects of the Issue). The planned prepayment is therefore 91 per cent of the gross proceeds at the upper band and 46.5 per cent of Reliance Jio Infocomm’s debt on that date, both webnotes.in calculations.

Valuation at the price band

At the upper band Jio Platforms is valued at about Rs 10.30 lakh crore on its post-issue capital, and at Rs 9.81 lakh crore at the lower band. The post-issue share count is 920,90,30,830: the 893,90,30,830 shares outstanding before the issue plus the 27 crore new shares.

Sources: RHP, Basis for Issue Price, comparison with listed industry peers (FY2026 consolidated; the RHP notes that Vodafone Idea’s P/E is not comparable because of exceptional items and that its average net worth is negative). Jio Platforms market capitalisation and multiples are webnotes.in calculations; the RHP leaves the company’s P/E blank until the issue price is fixed.

The RHP picks only Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea as peers, as the two “scaled digital connectivity providers listed in India”. Bharti Airtel’s Rs 2,10,972.8 crore FY2026 revenue includes its Africa business; its India revenue excluding passive infrastructure was Rs 1,40,373.4 crore, slightly below Jio Platforms’ Rs 1,46,885.3 crore.

Financial record

Jio Platforms’ restated consolidated revenue from operations grew from Rs 1,09,558.1 crore in FY2023-24 to Rs 1,46,885.3 crore in FY2025-26, and profit after tax from Rs 21,423.2 crore to Rs 30,049.1 crore.

Source: RHP, 14 October 2026, Restated Consolidated Financial Information and Basis for Issue Price key performance indicators. The RHP reports in Rs million; crore conversion is by webnotes.in.

Net worth was Rs 3,41,778.5 crore at 30 June 2026. The RHP states that Jio Platforms has neither declared nor paid a dividend on its equity shares in the three preceding financial years; a dividend policy was adopted in 2026 but leaves any payout to the board.

Operating figures for Reliance Jio Infocomm

Reliance Jio Infocomm, the licensed telecom subsidiary, had 53.33 crore customers at 30 June 2026 and an exit-quarter average revenue per user of Rs 215.6 a month (RHP, key performance indicators).

Source: RHP, key performance indicators for Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, the licensed telecom entity. ARPU is the exit quarter’s revenue from operations divided by average customers in that quarter, divided by three.

Reliance Jio Infocomm added 3.62 crore customers in FY2025-26 and carried 241.4 billion GB of data traffic. Monthly churn was 1.61 per cent in the June 2026 quarter.

Shareholding before and after the issue

Reliance Industries holds 66.43 per cent of Jio Platforms before the issue, and 10 investors from the 2020 fundraise hold 31.82 per cent between them. The promoter group, as distinct from the promoter, holds nothing.

Source: RHP, Capital Structure, shareholding as on 14 October 2026. Post-issue stakes are webnotes.in calculations on 920,90,30,830 shares and assume all 27 crore shares are allotted.

Because none of the 2020 investors is in the promoter group, they count as public shareholders after listing under the SCRR definition of public, which excludes only the promoter and promoter group, and public shareholding is about 35.52 per cent from the first day (a webnotes.in calculation; the RHP does not state a post-issue public figure, and any shares held by an employee stock option trust count on neither side). The minimum public shareholding timetable that gives a very large issuer five years to reach 15 per cent and 10 to reach 25 per cent therefore does not bind Jio Platforms. The issue does have to meet the minimum offer size for its tier: SCRR Rule 19(2)(b), as substituted by G.S.R. 184(E) of 13 March 2026, requires an issuer valued above Rs 5 lakh crore to offer shares worth at least Rs 15,000 crore and at least 1 per cent, with at least 2.5 per cent offered in all cases. At 2.93 per cent and Rs 28,755 crore to Rs 30,213 crore, the offer clears both.

Lock-in after allotment

Every share of Jio Platforms that existed before the IPO is locked in for at least six months from allotment, and Reliance Industries’ minimum promoter contribution for three years (RHP, Capital Structure).

Source: RHP, Capital Structure, notes on lock-in. Shares under the JPL Employee Stock Option Scheme 2020 and holdings of eligible AIFs and FVCIs are excepted from the six-month lock-in as the regulation provides.

The six-month lock-in covers the 10 named investors (30.89 per cent after the issue) and the 93 other pre-issue shareholders (1.70 per cent) alike, and runs to about 26 April 2027 if allotment happens on 26 October 2026 as scheduled. Until then the tradeable float is the 2.93 per cent issued in the IPO plus any exempt ESOS, AIF and FVCI shares, and for the first 30 days it is about 2.14 per cent, because the anchor shares (0.79 per cent of post-issue capital) are themselves locked in. These percentages are webnotes.in calculations on 920,90,30,830 post-issue shares.

History before the listing

Jio Platforms was incorporated on 15 November 2019 at Ahmedabad as a public company under the Companies Act 2013, and became the holding company of Reliance Jio Infocomm with effect from 13 December 2019, when Reliance Industries transferred its Rs 44,200 crore of Reliance Jio Infocomm equity and Rs 20,250 crore of preference shares to it at cost (RHP, History and Certain Corporate Matters).

Two court-sanctioned schemes cleared the telecom subsidiary for outside investment. A composite scheme sanctioned by the NCLT Ahmedabad bench on 20 March 2019 moved Reliance Jio Infocomm’s optic fibre and tower undertakings into separate companies, later sold to infrastructure trusts. A second scheme, sanctioned on 13 March 2020, transferred Rs 1,04,365.3 crore of identified liabilities from Reliance Jio Infocomm to Reliance Industries.

The 2020 fundraise

Between 22 April and July 2020 Jio Platforms raised Rs 1,52,056 crore from 13 investors, and Reliance Industries’ stake fell to 66.48 per cent on a fully diluted basis (RIL media release, 30 July 2020). The RHP gives the total as Rs 1,52,055.3 crore.

Sources: RIL media releases of 19 June 2020 (first 11 deals, Rs 1,15,693.95 crore for 24.70 per cent) and 30 July 2020 (Google and the Rs 1,52,056 crore total). Intel Capital and Qualcomm Ventures were the other two investors; RIL’s releases do not give their individual amounts, so none is stated here.

The fundraise ran alongside Reliance Industries’ Rs 53,124.20 crore rights issue of May and June 2020, which was subscribed 1.59 times. Meta’s 9.99 per cent of 2020 appears as 9.98 per cent of paid-up capital in the 2026 RHP, which measures a different base. L Catterton, Intel and Qualcomm are not among the shareholders the RHP lists individually.

The listing promise

At Reliance Industries’ 42nd annual general meeting on 12 August 2019, chairman Mukesh Ambani said the group would bring in global partners for Jio and Reliance Retail over the next few quarters and move towards listing both within five years (RIL media release, 19 June 2020, quoting the speech). At the 48th AGM on 29 August 2025 he announced that Jio was making arrangements to file for its IPO and aimed to list by the first half of 2026, subject to approvals (Chairman’s Statement, 48th AGM). The DRHP followed on 19 June 2026, and the listing date in the RHP is 28 October 2026, about four months after the first-half target.

Risks disclosed in the red herring prospectus

The RHP lists its risk factors in Section II. Five bear directly on how the business earns money.

Licence and spectrum tenure. Reliance Jio Infocomm’s unified licence is due for renewal in October 2033, and most of its spectrum expires between 2041 and 2042. The company also missed 26 GHz roll-out obligations in FY2025-26 because of a hardware supply gap and has provided Rs 10.6 crore for possible liquidated damages.

Dependence on Reliance Retail. Reliance Retail Limited is the sole distributor of Jio’s prepaid connectivity services, and prepaid connectivity made up 77.08 per cent of consolidated revenue from operations in FY2025-26 and 76.37 per cent in the June 2026 quarter. The “Jio” trademark is also used by other Reliance group companies and is not controlled by Jio Platforms.

Licence fee on revenue. The unified licence charges an annual fee of 8 per cent of adjusted gross revenue, and the RHP warns that a higher rate, a wider definition of adjusted gross revenue, or a computation dispute with the Department of Telecommunications would raise costs.

Regulatory litigation. Reliance Jio Infocomm is contesting Department of Telecommunications demands of Rs 1,389.1 crore for an additional 0.50 per cent spectrum usage charge on shared spectrum; the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal quashed them on 30 May 2025, and the Supreme Court issued notice on the government’s appeal on 16 January 2026 without a stay. Separate TRAI financial disincentive orders under its commercial communications regulations are stayed by TDSAT, and TRAI has filed a writ in the Delhi High Court.

Related-party exposure and debt. The RHP flags agreements with Reliance Industries and other group companies, the possibility that group entities compete with Jio Platforms, and the group’s borrowings, which the issue proceeds are mainly meant to reduce. Contingent liabilities not acknowledged as debt were Rs 1,468.8 crore, 0.43 per cent of net worth.

The RHP also covers network disruption, satellite and other technology competition, dependence on a few passive infrastructure providers, and capital intensity. Every risk factor is in the RHP from page 30, and the 17-page abridged prospectus carries a summary.

Taxation of Jio Platforms shares

Shares allotted in the IPO are listed equity on which securities transaction tax is paid at sale, so a gain on sale within 12 months of allotment is a short-term capital gain taxed at 20 per cent under section 196 of the Income-tax Act 2025 (formerly section 111A of the 1961 Act), and a gain after 12 months is long-term, taxed at 12.5 per cent above Rs 1,25,000 a tax year under section 198 (formerly 112A). Surcharge and the 4 per cent cess apply on top. The holding period runs from allotment, not from listing. Tax on listing-day gains and capital gains tax in India cover the computation.

See also

• Initial public offering
• IPO process in India
• National Stock Exchange IPO
• Reliance Industries
• Reliance Jio Infocomm
• Mukesh Ambani
• Bharti Airtel
• Jio BlackRock Mutual Fund
• Red herring prospectus
• Draft red herring prospectus
• How to read an RHP
• Abridged prospectus
• Book building
• IPO price band
• IPO lot size
• Cut-off price
• Anchor investor
• Qualified institutional buyer
• Non-institutional investor
• Retail individual investor
• IPO investor categories
• Small HNI and big HNI in an IPO
• Employee IPO reservation
• How to apply in the shareholder category
• How to apply for an IPO through Zerodha
• How to approve a UPI mandate for an IPO
• Who can use UPI ASBA for an IPO
• ASBA
• UPI mandate
• IPO oversubscription and allotment
• Basis of allotment
• How to check IPO allotment on the registrar site
• IPO listing timeline after close
• IPO listing day
• Pre-open session on listing day
• Grey market premium
• Mainboard IPO
• Offer for sale
• Rights issue
• Minimum public shareholding
• Promoter
• SEBI ICDR Regulations 2018
• Securities Contracts (Regulation) Rules 1957
• KFin Technologies
• Registrar to an issue
• Tax on listing-day gains
• Capital gains tax in India
• Securities transaction tax
• National Stock Exchange
• Bombay Stock Exchange

External references

• Jio Platforms Limited red herring prospectus, 14 October 2026 (Jio)
• Jio Platforms Limited RHP on SEBI public issues filings
• NSE issue information, Jio Platforms Limited (JPL)
• RIL media release on the Jio Platforms fundraise, 30 July 2020
• RIL media release with the investor table, 19 June 2020
• Chairman’s Statement, 48th RIL annual general meeting, 29 August 2025

References

1. Jio Platforms Limited, Red Herring Prospectus, 14 October 2026 (Cover page; Objects of the Issue; Capital Structure; Basis for Issue Price; History and Certain Corporate Matters; Dividend Policy; Risk Factors; Issue Structure; Terms of the Issue).
2. SEBI, final observation letter to Jio Platforms Limited, ref. HO/49/11/11(307)2026-CFD-RAC-DIL1/I/19886/2026, 28 August 2026, as listed in the RHP.
3. Jio Platforms Limited, intimation of allocation to anchor investors, letter to BSE and NSE, 19 October 2026.
4. National Stock Exchange of India, Security Parameters (Post Anchor), Jio Platforms Limited, symbol JPL, October 2026.
5. Securities and Exchange Board of India (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations 2018, Regulations 6, 7, 14, 16, 17, 29, 30, 32, 33, 45 and 49, and Schedule XIII.
6. Securities Contracts (Regulation) Amendment Rules 2026, G.S.R. 184(E), Gazette of India, 13 March 2026, substituting SCRR Rule 19(2)(b).
7. SEBI circular SEBI/HO/CFD/TPD1/CIR/P/2023/140, 9 August 2023, reduction of the listing timeline to T+3.
8. Reliance Industries Limited, media releases of 19 June 2020 and 30 July 2020, the latter quoting the Chairman’s speech at the 42nd AGM (12 August 2019), and the Chairman’s Statement at the 48th AGM (29 August 2025).