Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio Platforms has approved plans to list in Mumbai to raise around $3.8 billion, sources said, in what could be a record IPO for the country.
The share listing aims to unlock value in a business that includes Reliance Infocomm, the world's second-largest telecom operator by subscribers after China Mobile, with about 500 million users, and also houses AI, cloud and enterprise network businesses.
The IPO is targeting a fundraising of around 360 billion Indian rupees ($3.81 billion), three sources familiar with the matter said, equal to about 2.9% of its post-issue equity, valuing the business at around $131 billion.
The IPO prospectus, which did not contain the fundraising target, said the proceeds will be used to repay an estimated 275 billion rupees ($2.92 billion) of telecom unit Reliance Infocomm's debt.
"The company believes that this would improve our ability to raise further resources in the future to fund potential business development opportunities," the prospectus said.
It added the repayment of debt "will position the company favourably for continued investment in its strategic priorities, including 5G network densification and expansion, fixed broadband penetration, AI and cloud services..."
Reliance did not respond to Reuters queries. The final details could change closer to the listing process.
MARQUEE INVESTORS
In 2020, Jio raised funds from marquee global investors including Meta, Alphabet's Google and Vista Equity Partners, diluting 33% of its stake.
Those investors were betting on India's rapidly expanding digital economy of 1.4 billion people where smartphone penetration is accelerating, internet costs are among the lowest in the world, and a young, mobile-first population is moving online at scale.
At the annual shareholder meeting, Ambani said, "the Jio IPO is described as the most important value creation milestone this year."
The company said it would issue up to 270 million new shares.
Jio says it currently has a roughly 60% share of India's data traffic.
In recent years, Jio Platforms has diversified beyond telecom into AI, cloud and enterprise network services, as well as app development. In 2023, Nvidia announced an AI partnership with Reliance to develop cloud infrastructure and language models.
