Jio May File Draft Papers For Public Listing Next Month Amid Market Volatility

Jio may file draft papers for its initial public offering in May with earnings of the full financial year, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Earlier, the company was reportedly expected to file for the public listing in March with financials up to the third quarter of the financial year.

The listing plan has been delayed, keeping in view the prevailing volatile situation in the stock market for over a month.

The proposed IPO is expected to be one of the biggest public offerings in the Indian market, given Jio Platforms’ scale and presence in the telecom and digital ecosystem.

Jio Platforms has attracted global investors over the past few years, including technology giants and private equity firms, which invested billions of dollars in the company during its fundraising rounds in 2020.

India’s largest telecom company has foreign investors like Meta, Google, and KKR. The company has held talks with 13 foreign investors, according to the report.

Meta has a stake of 9.99 percent in Jio, while Google has a stake of 7.73 percent. Other major foreign investors include Vista Equity Partners and KKR.

Three Gulf sovereign funds—the Public Investment Fund, Mubadala, and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority—also have stakes in the company.

The stake sale by foreign investors would be around 8 percent of their respective holdings.

This implies that about 2.5 percent of the total shares to be offered in the IPO would come from the stake sale by foreign investors. Meta selling 8 percent of its 9.99 percent stake would amount to about a 0.8 percent stake sale by the social media giant.

The listing is also expected to unlock value for Reliance Industries shareholders, as analysts have long argued that Jio Platforms’ valuation is not fully reflected in the parent company’s stock price.

The Reliance Jio IPO will be a complete offer-for-sale. That is, the company would not be selling additional shares, but existing investors would be offloading a part of their stake in the open market. Hence, Jio will not be raising any money through the listing exercise.