By Vibhuti Sharma and Aditya Kalra
MUMBAI, Oct 28 (Reuters) – Shares of billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Platforms soared 21% in their Mumbai debut on Wednesday, making it India’s second-largest company by market capitalisation, valued at about $131.5 billion.
Jio, whose telecoms business serves more than 530 million customers, is backed by Meta Platforms and Alphabet’s Google. Its user numbers are second only to China Mobile on the basis of single-country subscribers.
The listing, the first for the Reliance conglomerate in two decades, furthers Ambani’s plan to turn Reliance from an oil-and-chemicals conglomerate into an “everything company” spanning consumer products and technology.
The listing ceremony was attended by Mukesh Ambani, Akash Ambani, his eldest son and Jio’s managing director, and his wife Nita Ambani. Ambani’s other children Isha and Anant Ambani also attended.
The stock opened at 1,358 rupees a share, compared with its 1,119-rupee offer price. Jio’s market capitalisation overtook Bharti Airtel and HDFC Bank, becoming the second-largest Indian firm by that metric.
‘THANK YOU, INDIA’
Several brokerages see a potential upside for the Jio stock, but they flagged competition, heavy capital spending and changes in India’s telecom rules, including those related to spectrum, licensing and fees.
“Jio has had a strong debut even despite geopolitical issues and turbulent market conditions … the revenues and earnings will lead the stock here onwards,” said Kranthi Bathini, equity strategist at WealthMills Securities.
The Ambani family rang the IPO bell on stage at the National Stock Exchange in Mumbai. An emotional Mukesh Ambani was seen in tears as Anant traced Reliance’s and Jio’s legacies and journey in a speech at the ceremony.
Major Indian newspapers on Wednesday carried front-page ads from Reliance Jio, saying “Thank you, India.”
India has become the world’s busiest IPO market this year in terms of the number of deals, with 246 listings so far, though it ranked fourth by money raised at $13.5 billion, behind the US, mainland China and Hong Kong, LSEG data showed.
(Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma in Mumbai; Editing by Susan Fenton and Thomas Derpinghaus)
