Mumbai
Mukesh Ambani, the richest person in India and Asia, is preparing to launch the country’s biggest ever IPO. In a report of Hindu Businessline, quoting sources, it has been said that Ambani has started preparations for the IPO of Reliance Jio. The company’s IPO could be worth Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000 crore. According to sources, along with offer for sale, fresh shares will also be issued. This IPO may come in the second half of the year. Hyundai Motor India had launched an IPO of Rs 27,870.16 crore last year, which is the largest IPO in the country so far.
According to sources, initial talks on pre-IPO placement for Reliance Jio’s IPO have already started. Investment bankers say that this issue can be big and there should not be any problem in subscription. The amount of pre-placement will depend on the size of the fresh issue. What will be the share of OFS and fresh issue has not been decided yet. There was no response to the email sent to Reliance regarding this.
Who has the stake?
Sources say that the OFS component will be important in Reliance Jio’s IPO as it will give an opportunity to many existing investors to sell their stake. Foreign investors hold 33 percent stake in the company. In 2020, Reliance had raised $18 billion from foreign funds like Abu Dhabi Investment Fund, KKR, Mubadala and Silver Lake. Many brokerages say that the valuation of Reliance Jio could be $ 100 billion. But sources say that the company is eyeing a valuation of $120 billion.
Ambani is also playing a big bet in AI sector. Jio Platforms recently joined hands with Nvidia to develop AI language models. With tech as well as AI push, Reliance Jio can get ahead of other startup companies. The company has also received regulatory approval to start satellite internet services. Reliance has spent $3 billion on acquisitions in the last five years to strengthen its telecom, internet and digital businesses.
Reliance Jio is the country’s largest telecom operator. By the end of October the company had 46 crore subscribers. In June last year, the company had increased the tariff due to which the number of its subscribers has declined. But despite this she remains number 1. Due to increase in tariff, there has been a significant increase in the company’s profit in the September quarter. This is being seen as a strategy to monetize 5G services before listing.
