India's largest telecom and digital service Jio Platforms files for IPO

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Jio Platforms, India's largest wireless operator and digital service provider, filed draft papers for an initial public offering on Friday. The IPO will see the company issue up to 270 million shares, as per an exchange filing. Jio Platforms, in which Ambani's flagship company, Reliance Industries, owns a more than 66% stake. Google International owns 7.7%, and Meta Platforms owns nearly 10%, per LSEG data. Jio Platforms owns Reliance Jio Infocomm, India's largest wireless operator, which has over 526.94 million subscribers in India. This amounts to nearly a 50% share of the wired and wireless internet market in the country, according to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Bharti Airtel, the second-largest telecom service provider with nearly 35% market share, is also the country's third most valuable company with a market cap of over $120 billion, according to LSEG data. It trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of over 42 times. In the annual shareholder meeting last year, Ambani had announced that the business would be listed before the middle of this year. However, the start of the Iran war has delayed many large IPOs in the country as investment sentiment soured. The Indian stock market is underperforming global peers so far in 2026, falling over 9%. It lost its position as the fifth-largest market to Taiwan, and later fell below South Korea. India is seen as an anti-artificial intelligence trade, with no major plays in the sector which has captured the attention of global investors. The economic challenges from the Middle East conflict further eroded investor interest from India. But as war moves to peace in the Middle East, there are signs of a revival. On Thursday, India's largest stock exchange, the National Stock Exchange, filed its IPO papers. Both Jio Platforms and NSE are expected to be among the biggest IPOs ever to hit the Indian market. Hyundai Motor India's $3.3 billion IPO in 2024 holds the record for the country's largest so far.