MUMBAI: Jio Platforms, the telecoms-to-technology arm of the RIL group, had a blockbuster listing on Wednesday, becoming the second most valued company in India and the fifth most valued telecom services provider in the world, on debut.The stock listed at Rs 1,358, a 21% premium over its initial public offering price of Rs 1,119, and rallied to close the session at Rs 1,419, up 27%. This gave the company a market capitalisation of Rs 13.1 lakh crore, putting it behind only its parent Reliance Industries (Rs 15.7 lakh crore) but ahead of its peer Bharti Airtel (Rs 12.2 lakh crore), exchange data showed. It’s only the second time in Indian corporate history that the two most valuable companies are from the same group. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Tata Steel and Tata Motors (then Tisco and Telco) were consistently the two top companies by market cap on BSE.
At 30.3L cr m-cap, RIL group most valued now
Ahead of its listing on NSE, where four generations of the Ambani family were present, Jio Platforms director Isha Ambani recalled that nearly half a century ago, RIL had gone public through its Rs 2.8-crore IPO, at a valuation of Rs 10 crore. Dhirubhai Ambani, her grandfather, had then said his objective to list was to take the company to the public and not just limit the gains from it to a handful of investors. Dhirubhai believed that anyone in India, however humble their beginnings were, deserved a share in the country’s growth, as part-owners. “He (had) asked ordinary families to trust him. And they did, with their savings, and with their dreams. Almost 50 years later, that trust has come full circle,” she said.
Jio has about 54 crore customers. Its hugely successful IPO was subscribed over 22 times, with nearly 1.3 crore investors wanting to have a pie in the company. India’s largest IPO was fully subscribed within barely 100 minutes of its launch, making it the fastest in the country’s history and prompting quips about “Jio’s 100m dash” — a play on the popular term for a 100-metre race.Compared to an indicative listing price of Rs 1,370 that was derived from the trend in the unofficial market, Jio listed slightly off that mark on Wednesday. However, late buying, believed to be mainly by foreign funds, took the stock price beyond Rs 1,400 and the company’s market cap beyond Rs 13 lakh crore, exchange data showed. The hugely successful IPO and the listing also took the RIL group to the top slot among the most valued business houses in India. At a combined market cap of Rs 30.3 lakh crore, it just raced past the incumbent Tata group, now at Rs 25.4 lakh crore, data from ETIntelligence showed.During the listing ceremony, Jio Platforms director Anant Ambani said he wanted to express gratitude to the millions who believed in Jio. He also paid rich tributes to his grandfather, Dhirubhai Ambani, and his father, Mukesh Ambani, “who dreamt big and believed Bharat should not be behind anyone”.Jio Platforms MD Akash Ambani said that in the next ten years, the company’s aim is “to democratise every technology that can transform Indian lives: AI, cloud, connected devices, connectivity even from space, and digital services not yet imagined. Our ambition is a truly digital society, with Jio Platforms at its core: one where connectivity, computing and intelligence work seamlessly together, and every Indian, in every corner and every language, can participate, progress and prosper.”The stock was ceremonially listed on NSE after a bell-ringing ceremony. After the first quote at Rs 1,358, the stock touched a high of Rs 1,424 and a low of Rs 1,357. On listing day, between the two bourses, about 19.4 crore Jio shares were traded. One of the noteworthy aspects of the IPO was that none of the existing shareholders in the company that included promoter RIL and global tech giants like Google and Meta sold any shares in the offer.
