Jio IPO may be pegged at over $6 bn; listing expected in Q2 or Q3 of 2025

Reliance Jio, the telecom business of the Mukesh Ambani-promoted conglomerate, is expected to go for an initial public offering (IPO) of over $6.25 billion either in the second or the third quarter of the calendar year 2025, sources said.

Reliance Retail is likely to be listed around the same time with a short gap, it is learnt.

The timing of the two IPOs, however, will depend on the company’s assessment of the market conditions among other factors.

The IPO size of Reliance Jio, the top telco in the country,  is being derived on the basis of the company’s valuation benchmarked against rival Bharti Airtel.

At the time of the IPO next year, Reliance Jio valuation would be considerably more than that of Airtel’s, according to investment banking sources, citing higher subscriber numbers and some other metrics such as Ebitda.

Airtel recently entered the $100-billion market cap club.

Jio leads with a mobile subscriber base of around 480 million against the second-largest telco Airtel’s below 400 million figure.

In terms of monthly average revenue per user (Arpu), however, Airtel leads with Rs 211 against Jio’s Rs 194.    

At an estimated valuation of around $125 billion, Jio could be looking at a $6.25-billion IPO or more, sources suggest.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) mandates a minimum 5 per cent promoters’ contribution at an IPO and Jio is not expected to go beyond that during its listing.

Reliance Retail, whose IPO could come “fairly quickly’’ as well, may be valued at anything between $125 billion and $150 billion if it’s listed next year, according to estimates.

Sources said the oil to telecom to retail group wants these IPOs to be successful and subscribed many times over, and therefore it’s important to arrive at a right timing.

When contacted, RIL did not comment on the matter.

RIL chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani had in 2019 said that Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail would move towards a listing within five years.

However, the pandemic, which came soon after, delayed the plan.

There’s nothing official from the group on the IPO timeframe after that.

At this point, the group is learnt to be focused on three areas: new and renewable energy, the tech space including artificial intelligence, and the consumption basket.

In a recent fireside chat with Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang, Ambani spoke about the coming of an Intelligence Era.

NVidia announced a partnership with RIL to build an AI computing infrastructure and innovation centre.

Nvidia struck deals with several other groups including the Tatas as well.

Even as many other marquee deals, some of them non-exclusive, in the AI and chip space are possible with global leaders, RIL may not be keen on setting up manufacturing plants for semiconductors at this stage, sources said.