Jio Platforms on Friday filed its draft red herring prospectus with markets regulator Sebi for an IPO, which includes a fresh issue of 27 crore shares to investors. Earlier today, Mukesh Ambani, while announcing the decision said the listing will unlock immense value for investors.
While reports estimate the IPO size to be around $3 billion, the company will use all its proceeds to repay debt availed by the company. The remaining funds are earmarked for general corporate purposes.
The company, in its DRHP, said that around Rs 27,500 crore will be earmarked for repaying loans in full or part received by the company.
"The requirement and deployment of funds as indicated above are based on the current business plan, internal management estimates, prevailing market conditions and other commercial and technical factors, including interest rates, exchange rate fluctuations and other charges, and the financing and other agreements entered into by Reliance Jio," the company said in its DRHP.
As on the date of the DRHP filing, the promoter Reliance Industries holds about 66.43% of the pre-issue paid-up equity share capital of the company.
Analysts said that a fresh issue means capital going directly into the business, unlike many IPOs, which are largely liquidity events for existing investors. That can further improve investor perception because the market sees growth capital rather than shareholder exits, the analyst added.
Reliance Jio Earnings
The IPO comes at a time when Jio's operating performance continues to improve. For the March quarter of FY26, Reliance Jio reported a 13% year-on-year rise in operating revenue to Rs 44,928 crore, while net profit increased 13% to Rs 7,935 crore. EBITDA grew 18% as operating margins expanded by 230 basis points.
Average revenue per user (ARPU) improved to Rs 214, helped by tariff hikes, better subscriber quality and higher customer engagement. Data consumption remained robust at 42.3 GB per user per month, with overall data traffic rising around 35% from a year ago.
What a fresh issue in Jio IPO means
Under a fresh issue, all shareholders would be diluted proportionately because new shares are created. In contrast, an OFS would have allowed only selling shareholders to reduce their stake while leaving the company's share capital unchanged.
Analysts believe this approach could help investors assign a clearer standalone valuation to Jio, whose telecom and digital businesses have remained embedded within the broader Reliance conglomerate for years.
