India’s largest IPO closed on Friday with bids for more than 22 times the shares on offer. Institutions bid for over 70 times their allocation in the final hours, and more than one crore applications came in.
Jio Platforms’ ₹30,213 crore IPO closed on Friday with an overall subscription of 22.19 times. Investors bid for about 438 crore shares against 19.75 crore on offer. The issue drew more than one crore applications, a record for an Indian IPO.
Most of that demand came on the last day. The issue was about 5.6 times subscribed at the end of Thursday and around 9 times by early Friday afternoon. Institutional bids then increased sharply in the last few hours of bidding.
Qualified institutional buyers, such as mutual funds, insurers and foreign funds, bid for more than 70 times their portion. Large institutions usually wait unti
l the final hours of a big IPO before placing their largest orders. The size of the final-day bidding shows that big domestic and foreign funds want a meaningful stake in Jio from the first day of trading.
Retail investors bid for 2.72 times their allocation. That looks modest next to the institutional figure, but given the size of the retail portion it amounts to a very large sum. With so many applications, most retail investors will receive either one lot or nothing, since oversubscribed retail portions are allotted by lottery.
The demand came during a difficult week. The Sensex fell four sessions in a row. Oil rose above $114 a barrel, and foreign investors kept selling Indian shares. Smaller stocks dropped sharply on Friday. Bids of more than 22 times in that environment show that investors are still willing to buy large, well-known Indian companies even as they sell the wider market.
There are three reasons. Jio is India’s largest telecom operator, with room to raise tariffs further and a growing home broadband and 5G business. All the shares were new, so the money raised goes into the company to reduce debt and fund growth. And for large funds tracking Indian indices, Jio is likely to become a heavyweight stock they will eventually need to own.
The grey market premium was about ₹240–245 a share on the final day, below its peak of about ₹273 on 20 October, which implies a listing roughly 20% above the issue price. Successful bidders can expect allotment on 26 October, with refunds and the credit of shares on 27 October, while listing is scheduled for on October 28.
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