A fast start on the first day
Large Indian IPOs usually begin slowly, with institutions often holding back until the final hours. Jio was different. By the end of day one, bids had reached 3.16 times the shares available and were worth ₹67,117 crore (approx. US$7.07 billion). Institutional buyers had covered their quota 9.42 times, while retail investors had bid for 0.73 times theirs. The National Stock Exchange of India’s IPO was only 42 per cent subscribed on its opening day and Hyundai Motor India’s just 18 per cent. A Person Close to the Jio Platforms IPO told Reuters, “It’s the fastest in the history of India.”
Institutional investors filled their reserved portion within the first 10 minutes, and the institutional book reached nearly two times subscription in under 30 minutes. The whole issue was fully subscribed within about 100 minutes of opening.
How the demand broke down
Qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) led the way, bidding for 70.55 times their quota. That is the highest QIB subscription among India’s five largest IPOs, and well above the 12.67 times recorded for the National Stock Exchange’s offering. Non-institutional investors, which include wealthy individuals, subscribed 14 times, retail investors 2.72 times and employees 2.93 times. Overall, investors bid for about 438.26 crore shares against 19.75 crore on offer, and investment bankers expect the final price to be fixed at the top of the range.
Record applications from retail investors and shareholders
According to data compiled by Safal Capital and Investoyard, the issue drew nearly 1.4 crore applications, of which more than 1.25 crore came during the public subscription window. The earlier Indian record was about 97.33 lakh. More than one crore applications came from retail investors, and the offering is reported to be the first IPO anywhere to pass the one-crore mark. Applications from existing Reliance Industries shareholders topped 21 lakh, while small high-net-worth individuals sent in more than 5.75 lakh, large high-net-worth individuals more than 3.5 lakh and employees more than two lakh.
Shareholders had a separate reservation worth up to ₹2,500 crore (approx. US$263 million). Bids in that category exceeded ₹18,800 crore (approx. US$1.98 billion), more than double the previous reported record of ₹9,350 crore (approx. US$984 million).
An anchor book that drew record interest
Before the public issue opened, Jio placed ₹8,110 crore (approx. US$854 million) of shares with anchor investors. Bids for that portion reached about ₹2.5 lakh crore (approx. US$26.32 billion), more than 30 times the amount available and the biggest anchor demand recorded for an Indian IPO. Shares went to 212 investor accounts and schemes at ₹1,119 (approx. US$11.78) each, the top of the price band. BlackRock, Fidelity, Singapore’s GIC, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, BNP Paribas, Allianz, JPMorgan and Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) were among them.
Ninety-five mutual fund schemes took shares worth about ₹2,785 crore (approx. US$293 million), and 22 insurer and pension fund accounts took about ₹1,090 crore (approx. US$115 million). LIC alone was allotted around 44.68 lakh shares, worth nearly ₹500 crore (approx. US$52.63 million) and 6.17 per cent of the anchor portion. Counting both the anchor orders and the public bids, total investor demand came to roughly ₹7.4 lakh crore (approx. US$77.9 billion), a measure of orders placed rather than money raised.
Where the issue sits among India’s biggest listings
The ₹30,213 crore raised tops the ₹27,870 crore (approx. US$2.93 billion) that Hyundai Motor India collected in 2024, the previous record. It is also larger than the ₹22,561 crore (approx. US$2.38 billion) raised by the National Stock Exchange of India and the ₹21,008 crore (approx. US$2.21 billion) from Life Insurance Corporation of India’s 2022 issue. Every share sold was newly issued, with no existing shareholder selling through the IPO. Jio will use ₹27,500 crore (approx. US$2.9 billion) to repay or prepay borrowings, and the rest will go to general corporate purposes.
A weak market and a hard debut record
Foreign institutional investors have sold about US$33 billion of Indian equities this year, the Nifty 50 is down roughly 14 per cent and the Sensex nearly 15 per cent. High crude oil prices, inflation, bond yields and interest rates have all weighed on sentiment. Listings of this size have often struggled as well. According to Bloomberg, the four Indian IPOs of at least US$2 billion this decade have posted a weighted-average first-day fall of 9.9 per cent, and only the National Stock Exchange of India gained on debut. One 97 Communications, the owner of Paytm, dropped 27 per cent in 2021 and Hyundai Motor India 7.2 per cent in 2024.
Jio’s overall subscription also trailed that of some other large offerings, such as LG Electronics India at about 54 times in 2025 and SBI Cards & Payment Services at nearly 27 times in 2020. LG Electronics India, Eternal and Reliance Power were all fully subscribed on their first day.
What Jio’s valuation rests on
At the top of the ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 price band (approx. US$11.21 to US$11.78 per share), Jio is valued at about ₹10.3 lakh crore (approx. US$108.42 billion). Bharti Airtel, by comparison, had a market capitalisation of about US$123.38 billion on October 21. Jio has more than 524 million subscribers, making it the world’s second-largest telecom operator in a single country after China Mobile, with about 268 million on 5G as of March 2026. Fident Asset Management Founder Aishvarya Dadheech told Reuters, “Jio has changed India’s telecom landscape and (the IPO) offers a very reasonable valuation with strong fundamentals.”
In the year to March, Jio earned about US$3.2 billion in profit on US$15.5 billion of revenue, with almost 90 per cent of that revenue coming from telecoms. The business launched in 2016 on the idea that Indians would use the internet far more if it cost almost nothing, and cheap data and free voice calls quickly won market share from Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. In 2020 it raised about US$20 billion from 13 strategic and private equity investors, and Meta paid US$5.7 billion for a 9.98 per cent stake. Jio Managing Director Akash Ambani has said the company aims to capture a significant share of India’s digital economy, expected to reach US$1.4 trillion by 2030-31, and to become debt-free. The valuation also puts Jio alongside Meta, Alibaba and SpaceX among founder-led businesses valued above US$100 billion at the time of their IPOs.
Reliance’s long road to the listing
This is Reliance Industries’ first IPO since 2006. Mukesh Ambani first promised a Jio listing within five years in 2019, plans were delayed again in 2025, and a filing as early as March was pushed back after the Iran war dampened IPO appetite. The offering finally arrived during the Hindu festive season, considered auspicious for purchases. A person with direct knowledge said Reliance paid its more than 400,000 employees about 15 days early this month and helped facilitate share account-opening for people interested in applying, though the company did not respond to a request for comment.
Reliance’s share price has risen roughly 330-fold since 1990, and after the listing Reliance Group is expected to become India’s largest listed business group by combined market capitalisation.
Allotment and listing dates
The basis of allotment is expected to be finalised on October 26, with shares credited to successful applicants’ demat accounts by October 27. Jio is due to list on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India on October 28. Unofficial grey-market quotes put the shares at ₹1,369 (approx. US$14.41), a premium of ₹250 (approx. US$2.63) or 22.34 per cent over the top of the price band, though that market is unregulated and analysts caution against relying on it.
