Key facts
- Reliance Jio announces IPO plans, potentially India's biggest-ever share sale
- Jio is owned by Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries
- Jio launched in 2016, disrupting India's telecom sector with cheap data
- Listing would value Jio among India's most prized public companies
BBC reports that Reliance Jio has formally announced plans for an IPO that could rank as the biggest share sale in Indian stock market history. The telecom arm of Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries has been building towards a public listing for several years, with analysts projecting a valuation that would place it among India's most valuable listed companies.
Jio transformed India's telecom landscape after its 2016 launch by offering near-free data and calls, forcing rival carriers into mergers and bankruptcies and adding hundreds of millions of subscribers. Its services now span mobile, broadband, digital payments, and streaming, making it one of the country's most pervasive consumer platforms.
A listing of this scale would be a landmark moment for India's capital markets, potentially attracting massive domestic and foreign institutional investment. For ordinary Indians — millions of whom are already Jio subscribers — it would offer a rare opportunity to invest in a company that has fundamentally reshaped how they communicate and access the internet.