Jio Platforms' IPO makes it India's second-most valuable company

Jio Platforms opened trading 3.3% higher on Thursday, a day after its initial public offering that priced the shares at a premium of more than 25% to the IPO price. The listing valued the telecom and digital services firm at roughly 13.05 trillion rupees (about $137 billion), placing it alongside global telecom giants such as AT&T and Verizon. Reliance Industries, which holds more than a 64% stake in Jio Platforms, remains the most valuable company in India.

Analysts said the proceeds from the IPO will be used to retire legacy telecom debt, reducing Jio's leverage and potentially improving free-cash flow. The company diluted its share base by only about 3% and eliminated nearly 300 billion rupees of debt, according to Anurag Singh of Ansid Capital.

"Jio brings a rare scale to Indian equities," said Vaqarjaved Khan, senior analyst at Angel One, noting the firm’s customer base of over half a billion, operating margins of 52% and net leverage of 0.36 times.

Akash Ambani, managing director of Jio Platforms, outlined future growth areas that include artificial intelligence, cloud services, connected devices and satellite communications. The satellite initiative has drawn criticism from Elon Musk, who linked the Ambani family to delays in Starlink’s rollout in India.

Following the listing, the combined market value of the Reliance Group reached about 30 trillion rupees, surpassing the Tata Group’s 25 trillion rupees, according to Bloomberg data.