IPOs | Mega offerings to boost bourses

The announcement of two of the biggest initial public offerings (IPOs) in Indian stock market history—Jio Platforms and the National Stock Exchange (NSE)—has strengthened confidence in India’s growth story, just as global markets begin to regain their footing amid easing hostilities in West Asia. Together, the two offerings could raise close to Rs 67,000 crore, eclipsing previous fundraising records and potentially reviving momentum in India’s primary markets.

Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio Platforms plans to issue 270 million new shares in an IPO expected to raise around Rs 37,000 crore, valuing the telecom and digital giant between Rs 11 lakh crore and Rs 15 lakh crore. The company sits at the centre of one of India’s largest digital ecosystems, spanning telecom connectivity through Reliance Jio, entertainment platforms such as JioCinema and JioSaavn, online retail via JioMart, digital payments through JioPayments Bank and JioPay, as well as enterprise solutions and 5G technology for businesses and telecom operators.

The NSE, meanwhile, will offer 6 per cent of its equity to the public through the sale of 148.9 million shares. The issue is expected to raise about Rs 30,000 crore and value India’s largest multi-asset exchange at around Rs 5.4 lakh crore. Both offerings will comfortably surpass earlier record-breaking IPOs, including Hyundai Motor India’s Rs 27,870 crore issue in 2024 and LIC’s Rs 21,000 crore offering in 2022 (see India’s Biggest IPOs So Far).

The two IPOs, however, differ fundamentally in structure. Jio Platforms is launching a primary issue, creating new shares to raise capital for the company’s expansion. The NSE’s listing is an Offer for Sale (OFS), under which existing shareholders sell part of their holdings, allowing them to monetise their investments. Among the NSE’s largest shareholders are LIC, with a 10.7 per cent stake, Mauritius-based Aranda Investments (4.5 per cent), Stock Holding Corporation of India (4.4 per cent), SBI Capital Markets (4.3 per cent), State Bank of India (3.2 per cent) and General Insurance Corporation of India (1.6 per cent). Businessman Radhakishan Damani, promoter of the DMart retail chain, is the largest individual shareholder with about 1.58 per cent. Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), by contrast, owns 66.43 per cent of Jio Platforms. The remaining 33.57 per cent is held by a roster of global investors, including Meta (9.98 per cent), Google (7.73 per cent), sovereign wealth funds and private equity firms.

Speaking at the RIL annual general meeting on June 19, chairman Mukesh Ambani described the IPO as an emotional milestone for both him and his family. “The relationship Reliance shares with its shareholders is a deep and sacred relationship founded on pride, trust, respect and shared growth,” he said, adding that his children—Akash, Isha and Anant—are leading the Jio IPO process.

MORE THAN FUNDRAISING

Beyond the fundraising itself, the two listings could reshape India’s capital markets. A successful Jio listing would establish a transparent public-market valuation for RIL’s digital assets and provide an important benchmark for India’s rapidly expanding digital and AI economy, potentially encouraging more technology companies and startups to tap public markets. The NSE listing carries significance of a different kind. As one of the world’s largest derivatives exchanges by contracts traded, its long-awaited public debut is expected to deepen governance, improve transparency and broaden public ownership of an institution that sits at the heart of India’s financial markets.

The timing could also prove consequential. After a relatively subdued first half of 2026, the two mega listings are widely seen as bellwethers for the broader IPO market. If successful, they could trigger a fresh wave of large offerings that have been deferred amid global volatility. Listings of this scale also deepen market liquidity, attract sizeable global institutional allocations and reinforce India’s standing as a mature financial market.

“When large IPOs come, they either become top-of-the-market or bottom-of-the-market,” says Nilesh Shah, managing director of Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company. He points to the June 2003 IPO of Maruti Udyog Ltd (now Maruti Suzuki), which drew investors into both the primary and secondary markets in large numbers. Equally, there have been oversized offerings that have “dragged down the market”, he says, in an apparent reference to the over-priced Paytm IPO in 2021, whose disappointing post-listing performance dampened enthusiasm for several issues that followed. “It is the responsibility of the large IPOs that they price it properly,” he adds.

Right now, Shah believes the timing is favourable. “There is a lot of selling by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs). If properly priced, these IPOs can arrest the outflow of FPIs and can undoubtedly lead to more companies lining up for IPOs in the near future,” he says. According to market sources, Jio Platforms is likely to price its shares at a discount to Bharti Airtel, whose stock traded at Rs 1,852 on the BSE on June 30. In the NSE’s case, one market source said, the valuation “has to be fair to the incoming, existing and outgoing shareholders”.

Jio’s draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), a mandatory preliminary registration document filed with market regulator Sebi, says the net proceeds from the issue will be used to prepay “certain outstanding borrowings” and for “general corporate purposes”. By FY26-end, the company and its subsidiaries had outstanding borrowings of about Rs 71,529 crore. The filing notes that telecom remains a highly capital-intensive business requiring sustained investments in network expansion, technology upgrades and capacity enhancement. Future growth plans, it says, will require continued access to multiple funding sources. The NSE’s offering, being an OFS, will not generate any fresh capital for the exchange. The entire proceeds will go to the institutional and corporate shareholders selling their stakes.

THE SCALE FACTOR

The financial and operating metrics underline why both companies command such lofty projected valuations. As of March 31, Jio served 524.4 million customers after adding a net 36.2 million subscribers during FY26, giving it a market share of 39.2 per cent. Bharti Airtel had 469 million subscribers and a 37.8 per cent market share, while Vodafone Idea remained a distant third with 205 million subscribers and a 15.6 per cent share. The company reported revenue from operations of Rs 1.47 lakh crore and a profit after tax of Rs 30,049 crore.

The NSE’s scale is equally formidable. According to an IDBI Capital research note, the exchange had 253.66 million registered investor accounts, 129.09 million unique registered investors and 1,325 trading members as of March 31. The 2,978 listed companies on its platform had a combined market capitalisation of Rs 411.25 lakh crore. According to the World Federation of Exchanges, the NSE has been the world’s largest derivatives exchange by contracts traded for seven consecutive years. It accounted for 11.38 per cent of global cash equity trades and 51.18 per cent of equity derivatives contracts traded. In FY26, the exchange reported revenue from operations of Rs 16,601.3 crore and a profit after tax of Rs 10,302 crore.

Whether these IPOs merely rewrite the record books or usher in a new cycle for India’s capital markets will be the real test.