New Delhi, 21 October

Jio Platforms Ltd's Rs 30,213-crore initial public offering attracted a combined demand of about Rs 74,610 crore, including its anchor allocation, after becoming India's fastest-ever IPO to achieve full subscription within 100 minutes of opening on Wednesday.

The public issue was subscribed 3.01 times by 5 p.m., with investors bidding for 59.44 crore shares against 19.75 crore shares on offer, according to exchange data.

Public bids were worth approximately Rs 66,500 crore, calculated at the upper end of the Rs 1,119 price band, while the anchor allocation added another Rs 8,110 crore to total demand.

The portion reserved for qualified institutional buyers was subscribed 9.02 times, with bids for 44.22 crore shares against 4.90 crore shares on offer. Domestic financial institutions, including banks and insurers, bid for 25.02 crore shares, while foreign institutional investors sought 15.14 crore shares. Mutual funds bid for 3.19 crore shares.

Demand from non-institutional investors reached 1.58 times the shares reserved for them. The retail investor segment remained under-subscribed at 0.68 times, with bids for 5.78 crore shares against 8.50 crore shares on offer. Employee and shareholder reservations were subscribed 1.30 times and 1.38 times, respectively.

The strong institutional response follows an equally robust anchor-investor book. Jio allotted shares worth about Rs 8,110 crore to 212 anchor investors at Rs 1,119 apiece on Monday. Demand for the anchor allocation exceeded Rs 2.5 lakh crore, according to people familiar with the matter.

It took just 100 minutes for shares on offer to be lapped up by investors when the IPO opened for subscription on Wednesday, stock exchange data showed.

The early pace sets Jio apart from other large Indian offerings. Bajaj Housing Finance's IPO was fully subscribed by 2 p.m. on its opening day, while LG Electronics India's offering reached full subscription by the end of Day 1 in 2025. Hyundai Motor India's Rs 27,870-crore IPO, which held the previous record for India's largest public offering, was subscribed just 18 per cent by the end of its first day in 2024.

Jio's offering is also structurally different from those of Hyundai and LG Electronics, both of which were entirely offers for sale by existing shareholders. Jio is issuing up to 27 crore new shares, meaning the proceeds will go to the company rather than to shareholders selling their holdings.

Priced at Rs 1,065 to Rs 1,119 a share, the IPO would value Jio Platforms at about USD 108 billion at the upper end of the range. The offering is set to surpass Hyundai Motor India's record and marks a landmark public-market test for the digital and telecom business of Reliance Industries Ltd, controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani.

The IPO is a major test of investor appetite for Jio's ambition to expand beyond telecom connectivity into digital services, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. The company has cited a customer base of 533.3 million as a foundation for these businesses, seeking to convert its scale in connectivity into higher-margin enterprise and technology revenue.

The latest figures show institutional investors continuing to drive the offering, while retail demand is building more gradually. The final subscription figures could change before the offer closes on Friday.