By Aditya Kalra and Scott Murdoch
NEW DELHI/SYDNEY (Reuters) -Indian telecom and digital giant Reliance Jio Platforms, led by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, has decided not to launch its IPO this year as planned, delaying one of the country’s most anticipated stock offerings, two people familiar with the matter said.
Valued by analysts at over $100 billion, Jio wants to achieve higher revenues and a bigger subscriber base for its telecom business, and expand its other digital offerings, so that its valuation can increase further before an IPO, said the first source in describing the rationale for the delay.
Shares of its parent conglomerate Reliance Industries fell sharply after the Reuters report and were down 1.8% in afternoon Mumbai trade. Given its significant weighting in key indexes, Reliance’s fall also dragged the broader Indian market into negative territory.
Nearly 80% of Jio Platforms’ latest annual revenue of $17.6 billion came from its telecom business — Reliance Jio Infocomm, India’s biggest player. But Ambani is also fast-expanding his other niche digital businesses focused on developing apps, connected devices and AI solutions for enterprises.
Reliance Jio is also set to lock horns with Elon Musk, who is expected to launch Starlink internet service in India in coming months. Jio, which counts Google and Meta among investors, has also partnered with Nvidia to develop AI infrastructure.
In 2019, Ambani said Jio will “move towards” a listing within five years. And last year, Reuters reported Reliance was targeting a 2025 Mumbai listing for Jio Platforms, aiming for it to be India’s biggest ever IPO.
“Jio (IPO) is not going to happen this year, it’s just not possible. The company wants the business to be more mature,” said the first source.
Both the sources, who declined to be identified as the strategy is confidential, said Reliance had appointed no bankers so far to discuss a potential stock market offering.
Reliance did not respond to Reuters queries.
The telecom business, Jio Infocomm, had struggled as tariff hikes led to some churn in its subscriber base but has returned to a growth path this year. It has more than 488 million subscribers.
Indian brokerage IIFL Capital said in April it was cutting Jio’s core profit estimate for 2025-26 by 3% due to “higher costs and lower flow-through from the next tariff hike assumed in late 2025”. It also cut its valuation estimate from $117 billion to $111 billion, though Jefferies values it at $136 billion.
The first source declined to share the valuation that Jio had been targeting in the IPO, but said it was already “easily above $100 billion”.
India’s IPO market had its best-ever year in 2024, with $20.5 billion raised, second only to the U.S.
Amid trade wars and Middle East tensions, market sentiment turned jittery, but is recovering. India is the world’s No. 2 IPO market with $5.86 billion raised by June this year, accounting for the 12% of total proceeds globally, LSEG data shows.
Reuters has previously reported the Reliance Retail IPO was being delayed as the company wants to address operational challenges, including less than ideal earnings per square feet of space for the retailer, which runs India’s biggest grocery store network of 3,000 supermarkets.
The Reliance Retail IPO was unlikely before 2027 or 2028, the person added, without elaborating on the reasons.
In recent years, Ambani, Asia’s richest man, raised $25 billion collectively for digital, telecom and retail businesses from the likes of KKR, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, General Atlantic and Silver Lake.
“The investors are not upset (about IPO delays). They know the money is sitting in front of them,” said the first source.
(Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Scott Murdoch; Additional reporting by Chandini Monnappa; Editing by Kim Coghill)
Comments