Jio IPO gets Sebi nod; here’s how Reliance Industries shares reacted

Shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) rebounded more than 1% from the day’s low on Monday after the conglomerate’s telecom and digital arm, Jio Platforms, received Sebi’s observation letter for its proposed initial public offering (IPO).

RIL shares opened marginally lower at ₹1,280 on the BSE, compared with Friday’s close of ₹1,284.40. The country’s most valued company fell as much as 1.04% to an intraday low of ₹1,271.05 in early trade before recovering to hit a high of ₹1,288.50, tracking weakness in the broader market.

At the time of reporting, Reliance Industries shares were trading 0.32% higher at ₹1,288.50, with a market capitalisation of around ₹17.44 lakh crore. The stock had recovered nearly 1.4% from its intraday low.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was trading 0.35% lower at 76,994, while the NSE Nifty50 was down 0.44% at 24,070.

The stock is down around 18% so far this calendar year and more than 1% over the past month. Over the past year, it has declined around 5%. RIL shares touched a 52-week high of ₹1,611.20 on January 5, 2026, and a 52-week low of ₹1,250.55 on July 24.

In a post-market-hours exchange filing on Friday, RIL disclosed that Jio Platforms had received the Sebi observation letter on August 28 for the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) it had filed with the regulator.

Jio Platforms submitted the DRHP on June 19, following chairman Mukesh Ambani’s announcement at RIL’s 49th annual general meeting that the telecom and digital services business would be taken public.

IPO to help Jio cut debt

The proposed Jio Platforms IPO will comprise an entirely fresh issue of up to 27 crore equity shares with a face value of ₹10 each. While the final issue size has not been disclosed, market estimates peg the offering at around ₹37,700 crore, potentially making it the largest IPO in India.

Importantly, the issue will not include an offer-for-sale component. Existing investors, including RIL, Meta, Google, KKR, Silver Lake and sovereign wealth funds, will not sell their shares through the offering. RIL held a 66.43% stake in Jio Platforms as of March 31, 2026.

A key objective of the IPO is to strengthen Jio’s balance sheet. According to the DRHP, Jio Platforms plans to use up to ₹27,500 crore of the net proceeds to repay or prepay borrowings of Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL).

The debt repayment is expected to reduce net debt and interest costs while improving leverage and financial flexibility. RJIL’s borrowings include loans and external commercial borrowings from several domestic and international banks.

The IPO proceeds could therefore provide Jio with greater financial headroom as it enters its next phase of expansion, while also potentially improving the value of RIL’s stake in the business.

Jio’s subscriber base rose to 524.4 million at the end of FY26 from 488.2 million a year earlier. Revenue from operations increased to ₹1.47 lakh crore in FY26 from ₹1.28 lakh crore in FY25, while profit after tax rose to ₹30,049 crore from ₹26,109 crore.

Jio Platforms reported EBITDA of ₹76,255 crore in FY26, translating into an EBITDA margin of 51.9%. Apart from debt repayment, up to 25% of the gross IPO proceeds can be deployed for general corporate purposes.

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