The digital and telecom arm of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) will invite presentations from bankers in the third week of September for an IPO of $8-10 billion, the people said on the condition of anonymity. The company, which provides wireless, entertainment and cloud services, is targeting a valuation of $120-125 billion, the people said.
“The formal process is yet to start. Banker pitches will be called later this month,” one of the three people cited above said. More than a dozen investment banks, both global and domestic, are likely to make pitches, the person added.
At the Reliance Industries annual general meeting on Friday, chairman Mukesh Ambani said the company is making “all arrangements” to file for an IPO, targeting a public listing in the first half of 2026.
Morgan Stanley India is in pole position to be the IPO’s lead banker, the second person said, since it has previously helped Jio bring in large global investors over 2020 and 2010.
“RIL and Morgan Stanley have a very close association, and the banker was advisor to the earlier investments in JPL,” the person said, adding other banks in the fray include Kotak Mahindra Capital Co., Axis Capital and Goldman Sachs.
Queries emailed to Jio Platforms, Morgan Stanley and Kotak Mahindra Capital Co. remained unanswered, while Goldman Sachs and Axis Capital declined to comment.
The IPO, which comes at a time when global markets and geopolitical issues have dimmed visibility for many companies, will provide an exit opportunity for investors such as Meta, Google and KKR, who have poured over $20 billion into Jio. The listing will also test the market appetite for pure-play telecom companies, with two of Jio’s rivals—Bharti Airtel Ltd and Vodafone Idea Ltd—already listed.
Over 2020 and 2021, Jio Platforms sold 32.96% stake to investors such as Facebook (now Meta), Google, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala, ADIA, TPG, L Catterton, Public Investment Fund, Intel Capital and Qualcomm Ventures, raising more than ₹1.5 trillion. At the time, the company was valued at $120-125 billion.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley and Citi Research have pegged Reliance Jio’s current valuation at around $133 billion, implying a 13 times multiple on its estimated 2026-27 enterprise value against its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
Analysts are discussing how the listing will impact shareholders. “While Jio may attract higher value, RIL shareholders may not benefit hugely due to (the holding company) valuation discount,” analysts at Nuvama Institutional Equities said in a note on Friday, 29 August. A holding company discount is when a company’s stock price trades for less than the combined market value of all the investments and businesses it owns, reflecting investor preference for direct ownership.
However, Citi analysts said Jio Platforms’ listing does not mean a meaningful discount for Reliance Industries, thanks to a change in rules proposed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India. The regulator now plans to allow very large companies to go public by selling just 2.5% of their shares, instead of the current 5%.
So far, the October 2024 share sale of Hyundai Motor India at ₹27,870.16 crore has been India’s largest IPO. The National Stock Exchange is firming up its plans to list on the exchanges at a likely valuation of around ₹7-9 trillion.
A decade after disrupting India’s telecom market with free calls and low data prices, Jio’s telecom business has more than 500 million subscribers, while Airtel and Vodafone Idea have 362.8 million and 197.7 million respectively.
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