Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Platforms has approved plans to list in Mumbai to raise around $3.8 billion, sources said, in what could become a record IPO for India, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.

The share listing aims to unlock value in a business that includes Reliance Infocomm, the world’s second-largest telecom operator by subscribers after China Mobile, with about 500 million users, and also houses AI, cloud, and enterprise network businesses.

The IPO is targeting fundraising of around 360 billion Indian rupees ($3.81 billion), three sources familiar with the matter said, equal to about 2.9% of its post-issue equity.

The final details could still change closer to the listing process.

A company statement did not provide further details on the IPO, but Mukesh Ambani said in a shareholder address that the prospectus was due to be filed later on Friday.

“The Jio IPO is described as the most important value creation milestone this year,” Ambani said.

The company said it would issue up to 270 million new shares.

In 2020, Jio raised funds from major global investors including Meta, Alphabet’s Google, and Vista Equity Partners, diluting a 33% stake. Jefferies has previously valued the business at $180 billion.

Those investors were betting on India’s rapidly expanding digital economy of 1.4 billion people, where smartphone penetration is rising, internet costs are among the lowest in the world, and a young, mobile-first population is increasingly moving online at scale.

Jio says it currently holds roughly a 60% share of India’s data traffic.

News.Az 

By Nijat Babayev