◆  IPO SPECIAL  ·  MARKET INTELLIGENCE  ◆

Over half a billion customers, a 52% EBITDA margin and a debt-reduction mandate. Everything investors need to know before the issue opens on October 21: the numbers, the management’s message, the growth runway and the risks.

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On October 21, India’s stock markets will open the door to a company that most of the country already touches every single day. Jio Platforms, the digital and telecom arm of Reliance Industries, is offering up to 27 crore fresh equity shares in a book-built issue worth up to ₹30,213 crore at the top of its ₹1,065–₹1,119 price band.

In rupee terms, that makes it the largest public offering the country has seen, ahead of Hyundai Motor India’s issue of roughly ₹27,800 crore. In dollar terms, at about $3.2 billion, it sits just behind Hyundai’s $3.3 billion offering from 2024. And at the upper end of the band, the company is valued at around ₹10.30 lakh crore (about $108 billion), which would place it among the most valuable listed companies in India.

SECTION 01

The Issue at a Glance

Key dates

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SECTION 02

From Reliance Subsidiary to Public Company

Jio Platforms was incorporated on November 15, 2019, as the holding vehicle for Reliance’s digital businesses. Its principal operating subsidiary, Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL), runs the mobile and broadband network. In 2020, the company raised about ₹1.52 lakh crore for a 32.97% stake from marquee backers including Facebook (now Meta) and Google.

The public offering has been a long time coming. At Reliance Industries’ 48th Annual General Meeting, Chairman Mukesh Ambani announced that Jio was making arrangements to file for an IPO, initially flagged for the first half of 2026. Draft papers followed in June 2026, the final prospectus on October 14, and the price band on October 15.

Ahead of the issue, Reliance Industries holds 66.43% of Jio Platforms, falling to 64.48% after the fresh issue. Reports citing LSEG data place Meta’s affiliate Jaadhu Holdings at nearly 10% and Google International at about 7.7%. Because the offer is entirely fresh, none of these shareholders is selling a single share; every rupee raised goes to the company.

SECTION 03

Scale That Few Telecom Operators Can Claim

The company describes itself as a technology platform built on proprietary digital technology and pan-India connectivity. The numbers behind that description are substantial:

◆ Customers: 524.4 million at March 31, 2026, after 36.2 million net additions in FY26, rising to 533.3 million by June 30, 2026.

◆ 5G: 268.5 million 5G customers at the end of FY26, an increase of roughly 77 million in a single year. Management calls this the largest 5G base outside China.

◆ Home broadband: 27.1 million fixed broadband customers, with about 10 million net additions over the past 12 months, roughly three-quarters of them on AirFiber.

◆ Traffic: 241 exabytes of data carried in FY26, up 30.8% year on year, and more than 60% of India’s data traffic according to management.

◆ Network: coverage of over 99% of India’s population, around 360,000 towers and about one million route kilometres of fibre.

◆ Technology: 7,220 patent applications filed, of which 1,043 are granted, plus an in-house 5G stack covering core and operations software and the JioBrain AI platform.

◆ People: 27,932 full-time employees and 63,795 contract personnel as of June 30, 2026.

THE TAKEAWAY   Jio is not just big; it is big and increasingly efficient, with earnings growing faster than revenue.

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SECTION 04

The Financial Engine

Jio’s FY26 results show a business that is growing steadily while converting more of each rupee into operating profit. Revenue from operations rose 14.6% to ₹1,46,885 crore. EBITDA climbed 18.8% to ₹76,255 crore, lifting the margin to 51.91% from 50.05%. Profit after tax grew 15.1% to ₹30,049 crore.

Source: Restated consolidated figures from the RHP as compiled by Chittorgarh and other disclosures; PAT and EBITDA figures are rounded.

From the reported figures, EBITDA compounded at roughly 17.8% a year between FY24 and FY26, profit after tax at about 18.4%, and revenue at 15.8%. Operating leverage is visible: earnings are growing faster than sales.

The latest quarter

In the June 2026 quarter (Q1 FY27), revenue from operations stood at ₹39,173 crore against ₹35,032 crore a year earlier, an increase of about 11.8%. EBITDA reached ₹20,865 crore at a margin of 53.26%, compared with 51.77% in the year-ago quarter. Profit after tax was ₹7,764 crore and ARPU edged up to ₹215.6.

Cash generation

The heavy 5G build-out is now largely behind the company. EBITDA minus cash capital expenditure rose from about ₹1,449 crore in FY24 to roughly ₹42,071 crore in FY26, and reporting from TelecomLead notes that capex fell 23% to ₹34,184 crore in FY26 as software investment increased. Management says roughly 30% of revenue now converts into free cash flow.

THE TAKEAWAY   Margins above 50% and falling capex have turned the business from an investment story into a cash-generation story.

SECTION 05

What Pays the Bills

Connectivity remains the core. Prepaid connectivity services contributed 77.08% of consolidated revenue from operations in FY26, and Reliance Retail is the sole distributor of those services. The operating subsidiary RJIL accounted for 87.74% of consolidated revenue, 94.88% of EBITDA and 93.76% of profit after tax. The remaining businesses, including digital services, enterprise solutions, cloud and AI-led offerings, are smaller today but form the basis of the company’s platform ambitions.

SECTION 06

Where the Money Goes

The prospectus earmarks ₹27,500 crore of the net proceeds to prepay borrowings of RJIL, with the balance for general corporate purposes. Total borrowings were ₹70,781 crore at March 31, 2026 and ₹61,372 crore at June 30, 2026, before any benefit from the IPO. Disclosure summaries put net leverage at about 0.36x, down from 0.88x in FY24.

One liability sits outside that picture: the company still owes the government roughly ₹1.05 lakh crore for spectrum acquired in earlier auctions. Brokerages argue that lower interest costs and a maturing capex cycle should strengthen cash flows.

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SECTION 07

In Their Own Words: Management Commentary

At the IPO press conference in Mumbai on October 15, Managing Director Akash Ambani laid out how the company sees itself and what drives its earnings.

“The world’s largest 5G base outside of China.”

Akash Ambani, on what Jio has built in about three years of 5G rollout (Business Today)

◆ Execution speed. He described the migration of customers from 4G to 5G as the fastest anywhere and said the company started its 5G journey only three years ago.

◆ The earnings story. He tied EBITDA growth to carrying over 60% of India’s data traffic, noting a 53.3% EBITDA margin in the first quarter of FY27 and about 17.8% EBITDA growth over three years.

◆ Infrastructure leverage. With roughly 360,000 towers and about one million route kilometres of fibre already in place, he said 6G would be delivered as a software upgrade rather than a new infrastructure build.

◆ Pricing philosophy. He acknowledged that the company retains pricing power, saying, “We always have the ability to take up prices,” but stressed that the preference is to earn more per customer by selling more services instead of leaning on price per gigabyte.

◆ Home broadband. He said the company’s in-house unlicensed-band radio technology has widened the addressable home broadband market from 40 million to 100 million households, with equipment rollout complete and connections possible within 48 hours of a request.

◆ Mission. He reiterated that Jio’s first mission is to democratise technology for Indians, and framed three growth engines: mobility, home broadband, and enterprise and international services.

Earlier, Chairman Mukesh Ambani had told shareholders that Jio had crossed 500 million subscribers shortly before completing a decade of operations, using the milestone to introduce the IPO plan.

SECTION 08

The Growth Runway

Management and brokerages broadly point to the same set of drivers, which the company groups into three engines.

1. Mobility

The first lever is the continued migration of 2G and 4G users to 5G, combined with rising data consumption. ARPU has already moved from ₹181.7 in FY24 to ₹214.0 in FY26, and average national download speeds have climbed from about 2.5 Mbps in 2016 to roughly 68 Mbps today, according to Akash Ambani. Brokerages such as SBI Securities and Emkay Global also cite tariff rationalisation and a 5G investment cycle that is winding down.

2. Home broadband

Fixed wireless access is the second engine. Jio has said its unlicensed-band radio technology, which it describes as a first in India, brings far more households within reach at a lower cost of deployment. The service is expected to cover nearly every corner of the country, spanning about 19,000 PIN codes.

3. Enterprise and international services

The third engine covers managed services for large enterprises and small businesses, cloud and security offerings, and the possibility of exporting Jio’s in-house technology stack to operators overseas. Analysts also flag AI-led services, digital applications and satellite connectivity as potential additions. On the satellite front, Jio is working with SES on broadband services.

Management frames all of this against India’s wider digital economy, which it sizes at a $1.4 trillion opportunity by FY31.

THE TAKEAWAY   Mobility defends the base, home broadband widens it, and enterprise and international services are the optionality.

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SECTION 09

How Jio Stacks Up Against Bharti Airtel

Source: Business Today and Swastika Investmart analysis, October 2026. Airtel’s consolidated numbers include overseas operations, so the comparison is indicative rather than like-for-like.

The picture is nuanced. Jio is the larger operator by customers and carries a lower P/E, but Airtel earns more per user and generates a higher return on capital. Jio’s own return on capital slipped to 10.76% in FY26 from 12.50% the year before, which is a figure the post-IPO story will need to improve.

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THE TAKEAWAY   The comparison with Airtel is a trade-off: Jio offers scale and a lower multiple, Airtel offers higher returns per rupee of capital.

SECTION 10

Valuation and Market Appetite

At the upper end of the band, the market capitalisation works out to ₹10,30,490 crore, or about 33.3 times FY26 earnings and close to 3 times book value, based on the prospectus data. The pricing came in lower than many had expected. Nomura estimated Jio’s enterprise value at about $118 billion, compared with $133 billion previously anticipated, and Prime Database had estimated a larger raise of roughly ₹37,700 crore.

Institutional interest appears strong. Bloomberg reported on October 13, citing people familiar with the matter, that the offering had drawn bids of more than $20 billion, with global investors such as Fidelity, Allianz and Capital Group among those interested. The company has not confirmed this.

SECTION 11

Risks the Prospectus Flags

No investment case is complete without its counterweights. The offer document and independent analysts highlight the following:

◆ Related-party dependence. Reliance Retail is the sole distributor of prepaid services, which generated 77.08% of revenue. In the June 2026 quarter, about 36% of non-spectrum capital spending went to Reliance Industries and its affiliates, and the Jio brand is owned by Reliance Industries and licensed to the company.

◆ Infrastructure concentration. Summit Digitel owned about 48% of the 3.61 lakh towers Jio used as of June 2026, and Jio Digital Fibre supplied nearly 98% of its fibre needs, excluding its own last-mile network.

◆ Spectrum and licensing. Spectrum dues of about ₹1.05 lakh crore remain payable, and the unified telecom licence is due for renewal in October 2033.

◆ Tariff reliance. Revenue growth depends in part on periodic tariff increases and on continued discipline across the industry.

◆ Capital returns. Return on average capital employed of 10.76% trails that of its closest listed peer.

◆ Competition and regulation. Satellite broadband is an emerging factor. Starlink, Jio’s satellite venture and Eutelsat OneWeb all hold licences but are awaiting final clearances. Elon Musk has publicly accused unnamed parties of blocking Starlink’s launch, a claim the Ministry of Communications has rejected, and Reliance has said it does not fear competition. Starlink has not launched commercially in India.

SECTION 12

Getting Ready to Bid

Whatever your view on the valuation, the mechanics matter. Applications for the issue are made through a demat account with a UPI ID or an ASBA-enabled bank account. Here is what retail investors should have in order:

◆ A demat and trading account. If you do not have one, it takes minutes to open. Start with Brokerage Free

◆ The minimum bid. One lot of 12 shares costs ₹13,428 at the upper band. Retail applications can go up to 14 lots (168 shares), or ₹1,87,992.

◆ Shareholder reservation. Eligible Reliance Industries shareholders, meaning individuals and HUFs who held RIL shares on October 14, can apply in a separate quota of up to ₹2,500 crore, and can also bid in the retail or non-institutional portion.

◆ The calendar. Bidding closes on October 23, allotment is finalised on October 26, and shares are credited on October 27 ahead of the October 28 listing.

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SECTION 13

The Bottom Line

The Jio Platforms IPO is a rare combination of scale and scrutiny. It offers public investors access to the country’s largest mobile network, a fast-growing home broadband franchise and a margin profile above 50%, with all proceeds directed at strengthening the balance sheet. At the same time, it asks investors to weigh concentrated distribution, deep ties to the promoter group, large spectrum obligations and a return on capital that still has room to rise.

The Red Herring Prospectus is public, and the figures here trace back to it. Read it before you bid.

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Disclaimer: This article is for information and education only and is not investment, legal or tax advice. Figures are drawn from the RHP and publicly reported sources as of October 16, 2026; minor variations reflect rounding or differing definitions. Please read the RHP in full and consult a qualified advisor before investing.