The queue for Jio's IPO paid off. Shares opened 21% higher on day one
Jio Platforms, Mukesh Ambani's telecoms arm, opened at ₹1,358 on both the NSE and BSE on Wednesday, against an issue price of ₹1,119. That is a 21.36% first-day premium after the most heavily bid listing India has ever seen.
Jio Platforms started trading in Mumbai on Wednesday and its shares opened at ₹1,358 on both the NSE and the BSE. They were sold in the IPO at ₹1,119, the top of the range. That is 21.36% up in the first minute.
For anyone who got an allocation, it was quick money. For Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance, which owns the operator, it is proof that the record demand was not just noise.
From the queue to the open
When the offer closed on Friday, Jio had drawn around $77bn of bids for a little over $3.2bn of stock. The open question was whether a queue made up mostly of institutional funds would turn into a first-day pop. It did.
At 10:09 in Mumbai (5:39 in Lisbon), half an hour into the session, the shares were changing hands at ₹1,357 on the NSE, almost exactly where they opened.
What it is worth now
At the top of the IPO range, Jio was valued at roughly $108bn. Using the same share count and the opening price, our arithmetic puts it near $131bn. It is India’s biggest mobile operator, with 524 million customers in June.
The whole deal was new shares, with no existing holders selling. Most of the money raised goes to paying down debt at Reliance Jio Infocomm.
The price range, the share count and where the money goes are all set out in the offer document filed with India’s market regulator, SEBI.
By Beatriz Mota
Image: Jim Carter / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
