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Reliance Industries Ltd's (RIL's) technology arm Jio Platforms has filed its red herring prospectus (RHP) with SEBI for its IPO which will open for public subscription on October 21 and close on October 23. Anchor bidding for the issue will take place on October 19 (Monday). The company has retained its IPO size as outlined in its draft IPO papers. The IPO will comprise a fresh issue of up to 27 Cr equity shares. As per earlier reports, Jio’s IPO size was expected to be over ₹30,000 Cr. In its RHP, the company outlined that ₹27,500 Cr of the fresh capital raised via the IPO will be uitilised for prepayment, in full or in part, of certain outstanding borrowings availed by its material subsidiary, Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL). The repayment will help it reduce RJIL's net debt and interest costs, improve leverage as well as strengthen its financial position and preserve its ability to invest in strategic priorities such as 5G network expansion, fixed broadband, AI and cloud services, enterprise digital services and international technology partnerships. The proposed prepayment covers three external commercial borrowing (ECB) term loan facilities availed by the company totaling over ₹29,971 Cr. The loans were sanctioned by a consortium of international and Indian lenders including the likes of SBI, Bank of America, First Abu Dhabi Bank, among others and are due for repayment within 2028. The loans were originally raised to fund capital expenditure towards 5G infrastructure deployment and spectrum acquisition. Their scheduled repayment dates fall between March and June 2028. Interest rates on these borrowings range from 1.40% to 5.13% per annum. The remaining proceeds allocated for general corporate purposes may fund strategic initiatives, growth opportunities, capital expenditure, working capital, marketing and other business requirements. The company has outlined the following competitive strengths in the RHP: Technology and innovation: Jio claims proprietary capabilities across network infrastructure, devices, software, operating systems and applications. As of June 30, 2026, it had filed 7,220 patent applications. It also operates an end-to-end indigenous 5G standalone technology stack at a nationwide scale. Scale of digital services: RJIL had 533.3 Mn customers, including 284.9 Mn 5G subscribers, as of June 2026. It had 28.6 Mn JioFiber and JioAirFiber subscribers and held a 61.73% share of net fixed broadband customer additions in the June quarter. Its MyJio app recorded 227.6 Mn average monthly active users during the quarter. Technology-led operations: Jio uses AI-powered network automation, digital twins and its JioBrain platform to optimise network capacity, predict faults and improve service delivery. It said 84% of customer service requests were handled through self-service or AI-assisted workflows in the June quarter. Network infrastructure: The company had access to 3.61 Lakh network towers, over 1 Mn route kilometres of fibre and 26,800.8 MHz of spectrum. Its wireless broadband network covered over 99% of India's population. The Buzz Around Jio’s IPO The proposed IPO could be among the largest public issues in India. Jio filed its DRHP in June and received an observation letter from SEBI in August. The IPO has also been highly anticipated by investors of RIL. The oil-to-telecom conglomerate said that the IPO will have ₹500 Cr portion reserved for eligible employees and up to ₹2,500 Cr for eligible shareholders of RIL. Earlier, reports said the company has already received more than $20 Bn in bids ahead of the issue, while existing investors, including Meta and Google, are said to be looking to increase their stakes rather than exit. However, the buzz around Jio's IPO extends to a more fundamental question: can Reliance Industries turn Jio’s telecom dominance into a broader digital technology business that commands a premium valuation? As per Inc42's analysis in June, Jio’s next phase of growth will depend less on subscriber additions and more on monetisation. With 524.4 Mn subscribers as of March 2026, even a modest increase in average revenue per user (ARPU) could significantly influence earnings. The telecom giant has also displayed robust financial growth ahead of its listing. In the quarter ending June (Q1 FY27), Jio Platforms reported a consolidated net profit of ₹7,764 Cr, up 9.2% from ₹7,110 Cr. Operating revenue rose 11.8% YoY and 2.4% QoQ to ₹39,173 Cr. Meanwhile, gross revenue jumped 12% YoY to ₹45,961 Cr. Beyond telecom, Jio is expanding into AI, cloud computing, data centres, enterprise software, and satellite connectivity. Turning these initiatives into meaningful earnings will be key to establishing itself as a broader digital technology business.
document fetched 2026-10-15 03:00 · canonical https://inc42.com/buzz/jio-ipo-to-open-for-subscription-on-october-21