Jio Platforms raises ₹8,110 crore from anchors as bids top ₹2.5 lakh crore

Jio Platforms has raised ₹8,110 crore from anchor investors a day before its share sale opens to the public, and the institutions queuing for those shares asked for far more than they could get.

The Reliance Industries subsidiary allotted 72.4 million shares at ₹1,119 each, the top of its price band, to a list of investors that reads like a directory of the world’s biggest money managers. Bankers on the deal said the anchor portion drew bids of more than ₹2.5 lakh crore, over 30 times the amount on offer, which they described as a record for an Indian anchor book.

Who got shares

The Life Insurance Corporation of India took the largest single allocation, ₹500 crore or 6.17% of the anchor book. Capital Group’s New World Fund received ₹486.2 crore and the Government of Singapore close to ₹341 crore. SBI Focused Fund, a BNP Paribas vehicle and Fidelity’s Contra Fund were also among the larger holders.

GIC, BlackRock, FMR, SBI Mutual Fund, HDFC Mutual Fund and ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund were given ₹425 crore each. Schroders, Nippon India, Kotak, JPMorgan-managed funds, Allianz Global, Franklin Templeton, Morgan Stanley and Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global were among dozens of others. Family offices linked to HCL, the Premjis and Zerodha’s Rainmatter Investments also took part.

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority was given ₹239 crore across two entities. It already owns 1.16% of Jio Platforms through a stake bought in 2020, and bankers said it was the only existing shareholder to ask for more shares in the offer.

Not everyone reads the demand as money in the bank. An analyst at Samco Securities cautioned: “Anchor demand of ₹2.5 trillion against an ₹8,110 crore book reflects indicative bids, not committed capital.”

The issue

The public offer opens on Wednesday, 21 October, and closes on Friday, 23 October, at a price band of ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 a share. At the top of the range it raises ₹30,213 crore, all through new shares, which would make it the largest share sale in India. None of the strategic investors who bought into Jio Platforms in 2020 is selling.

Reliance Industries owns 66.43% of the company. Meta, Google, KKR, Silver Lake, General Atlantic and other investors who put in $20 billion in 2020 hold 30.89% between them, with Meta at 9.98% and Google at 7.73%.

At the upper end of the band, Motilal Oswal estimates the company’s market value at about ₹10.3 lakh crore. That would put it alongside Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank among India’s most valuable listed companies, behind its parent Reliance at about ₹16.28 lakh crore.

“Very few companies are of that size. So that means it becomes like an India proxy,” said Abhay Agarwal of Piper Serica.

The business behind the price

Jio Platforms earned revenue of ₹1.47 lakh crore in 2025-26 with operating profit before depreciation of ₹73,380 crore, a margin of about 50%. Revenue grew at an average of 15.8% a year between 2023-24 and 2025-26. Average revenue per user rose from ₹181.7 to ₹214 over the period, and the company has more than 533 million subscribers, adding 42.6 million last year. It carries over 60% of India’s wireless data traffic.

Stock exchanges were shut on Tuesday for Dussehra. When they reopen on Wednesday, investors will have the Jio offer, the Reserve Bank of India’s policy minutes and Eternal’s quarterly results to weigh on the same day.