Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL) has formally initiated its initial public offering (IPO) process by filing its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with SEBI, exposing a staggering 11,983% valuation leap for one of its earliest domestic backers. Mahendra Nahata, Founder and Managing Director of HFCL, is sitting on an approximate 121-fold return on an initial block of shares acquired at just Rs 10 each.
The draft prospectus reveals that the proposed IPO will consist entirely of a fresh issue of up to 270 million equity shares (face value of ₹10 each) to raise capital directly for the company, with no Offer-for-Sale (OFS) component from existing shareholders. Currently, no investor, including Nahata, plans to sell shares in the upcoming public issue.
Motilal Oswal has valued the telecom and digital giant at an overall equity value of Rs 10.7 lakh crore. Going by that, Nahata’s cumulative 0.54% holding, acquired for a total of Rs 47.87 crore in 2020, is now worth nearly Rs 5,800 crore.
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The Founder and Managing Director of HFCL acquired his Jio holding through two tranches on July 7, 2020 — eight months after Jio Platforms was incorporated. The Nahata family, including son Anant Nahata and daughter Priyanka Sanghi, acquired 37.04 million shares for Rs 37.04 crore by converting Compulsorily Convertible Debentures at Rs 10 each. Reliance simultaneously allotted a further 10.83 million shares, worth Rs 10.83 crore, to the family, bringing their combined stake to 0.54%.
The total cost of entry was just Rs 47.87 crore.
On the very same day the Nahata family received shares at Rs 10 each, Reliance allotted its first tranche to Meta at Rs 488.34 per share. Meta, Google, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, KKR, Vista Equity Partners, Mubadala, General Atlantic, ADIA, and TPG — thirteen investors in all — collectively poured Rs 1,52,056 crore into Jio Platforms for roughly 33% of the company. Most paid Rs 549.31 per share; Meta and Google received shares at Rs 488.34 each.
The Nahata family's entry price of Rs 10 per share was a fraction of what the world's largest institutional investors paid on the same day.
The origins of this position trace back a decade earlier. On June 11, 2010, Nahata's Infotel Broadband Services won pan-India telecom spectrum for Rs 12,872 crore. Within hours, Reliance Industries acquired a 95% stake in Infotel Broadband for Rs 4,800 crore, while Nahata retained a 5% holding. Reliance subsequently paid for the spectrum Infotel had won. That 5% stake in what eventually became Jio's precursor is the foundation on which the current position was built.
Jio plans to deploy Rs 27,500 crore of the issue proceeds to prepay borrowings at Reliance Jio Infocomm, its core telecom subsidiary, with the remainder earmarked for general corporate purposes.
Reliance Industries retains firm control with a 66.43% stake. Among external investors, Meta affiliate Jaadhu Holdings is the largest with a 9.98% stake comprising 892.3 million shares, followed by Google International LLC at 7.73% with 690.9 million shares.
