Jio’s record India IPO falls short of record payday for bankers

Jio Platforms Ltd. raised a record amount of funds for billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s digital and telecommunications giant, but it proved to be far less lucrative for the bankers handling the deal.

The company is paying about 1.96 billion rupees ($20.7 million) in fees to the 19 banks on the roughly $3.1 billion IPO, according to filings. That amounts to about 0.65% of the issue size, trailing the fee pools of several previous offerings in India.

Fierce competition among investment bankers in India has compressed fees, particularly for marquee deals. Firms are often willing to accept thinner economics for a coveted role on high-profile transactions. The payoff can instead come through league-table rankings, bragging rights and credentials that help win the next big pitch.


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That’s a far cry from the days when Hyundai Motor India Ltd. paid about 4.9 billion rupees to bankers for its then-record 278 billion-rupee IPO in 2024. Paytm parent One 97 Communications Ltd. paid about 3.2 billion rupees for its 183 billion-rupee offering in 2021, while Swiggy Ltd. handed out about 2.8 billion rupees for its 113 billion-rupee share sale.

Those types of windfalls have been elusive of late. National Stock Exchange of India Ltd., another blockbuster IPO this year, paid about 1.9 billion rupees to a syndicate of 20 banks that worked on its roughly $2.4 billion offering, equivalent to about 0.8% of the issue size. Bankers split fees of just 46.3 million rupees for SBI Funds Management of India Ltd.’s billion-dollar offering in July.

Investor enthusiasm, meanwhile, has been anything but restrained. Jio’s IPO was fully subscribed within the first 100 minutes of bidding and had attracted bids for nearly 22 times the shares on offer by Friday, according to BSE Ltd. data.