Jio Platforms IPO: Morgan Stanley, Goldman to lead issue; valuation may hit $133-$182 billion

Mumbai: Jio Platforms has narrowed down to Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as lead bankers for its upcoming initial public offering (IPO), said people familiar with the matter. The listing is expected to value India's largest telecom operator at $133-$182 billion, according to estimates by market analysts.

The company, the telecom and digital business unit of Reliance Industries (RIL), is ready to file its draft red herring prospectus once the finance ministry clears a proposal by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to allow a 2.5% public float for mega IPOs.

The offering is likely to be split evenly between primary issuance and secondary share sales, with private equity investors including KKR, TPG, Silver Lake and Vista Partners preparing to trim their holdings. Strategic shareholders Google (7.75%) and Meta (9.99%) are expected to retain their stakes, while Intel, which owns a modest 0.7%, may consider a partial sell-down, said industry executives and analysts in the know.

RIL and Morgan Stanley did not respond to ET's queries till press time while Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

In 2020, Jio Platforms raised more than ₹1.5 lakh crore (about $20 billion) from 13 global investors in a rapid fundraising round that saw the company sell a combined 33% stake. The deals were among the largest in Indian corporate history and helped make Jio Platforms net debt-free.

Google (Alphabet) and Meta Platforms (then Facebook) were the largest strategic investors and acquired 7.73% stake for about $4.5 billion and 9.99% for roughly $5.7 billion, respectively. Since then, both technology firms have deepened their partnerships with Reliance beyond equity investments to long-term collaboration across digital services, cloud, devices and, more recently, artificial intelligence initiatives housed under Reliance Intelligence.

Investment banks have pegged Jio Platforms' valuation following the "mother of all IPOs" at about $180 billion (nearly ₹15 lakh crore).

At the company's most recent earnings call, Anshuman Thakur, head of strategy at Reliance Jio Infocomm, said internal work on the IPO was underway but execution would begin only after regulatory clarity. "We are working on the assumption that it is in line with whatever Sebi has recommended, but we will still have to wait for that before we finalise and then start the process," he said, adding that the listing could take place in the next few months.

The spectrum of Jio Platforms' valuation is notably wide among brokerages. On Friday, Jefferies upgraded its bullish estimates of Jio's enterprise valuation to $180 billion, after third-quarter earnings. Motilal Oswal Financial Services pegged the valuation at $148 billion, while IIFL stuck to its previous estimate at $133 billion. Kotak Institutional Equities valued it at ₹11.59 lakh crore.