, which is India’s largest-ever public issue, enters its final day of bidding with a grey market premium of Rs 240 indicating about 21% listing day gain, while brokerages are pitching Ltd’s digital unit as a long-term compounder for India’s digital economy.










Platforms has already rewritten the country’s IPO record book with its ₹30,213 crore offering, surpassing Hyundai Motor India’s ₹27,870 crore issue in 2024. The IPO was fully subscribed within 100 minutes of opening on Wednesday, making it the fastest mega issue to cross full subscription since the ₹11,605 crore LG Electronics India offering in October last year.




At the upper end of the price band, Jio Platforms is valued at around ₹10.3 lakh crore. The issue comprises 27 crore fresh shares, with no offer-for-sale component, meaning existing investors are not selling shares into the IPO. The company plans to use ₹27,500 crore of the proceeds to repay or prepay borrowings, with the balance earmarked for general corporate purposes.




The anchor book was allocated to 212 investor accounts and schemes at ₹1,119 per share, the top end of the price band. The investor pool included LIC, BlackRock, Fidelity, Singapore’s GIC, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, BNP Paribas, Allianz, JPMorgan and several Indian mutual fund houses.



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Brokerages see long-term compounding potential


Brokerages recommend subscribing to with a medium- to long-term investment horizon. Motilal Oswal has told clients to subscribe for both listing gains and long term.




“Jio offers a combination of market leadership, healthy earnings growth and future opportunities in broadband, enterprise technology and AI. For long-term investors, the key monitorables will be ARPU growth, tariff hikes and the monetisation of digital services,” it said.




Shriram Research called Jio Platforms a “core structural compounder for India’s digital economy”, citing its market leadership, double-digit EBITDA growth, declining leverage and growing home broadband business. It said future growth could be driven by tariff increases, the migration of 2G users to 4G and 5G, deeper enterprise relationships and the potential export of Jio’s proprietary technology stack.




Geojit also recommended subscribing for medium- to long-term investors, while cautioning that near-term upside could be moderated by the premium valuation. It said Jio’s cloud, artificial intelligence, enterprise solutions, entertainment, digital platforms and fixed broadband businesses could become important earnings drivers over time.




At ₹1,119 per share, Jio is valued at around 33.3 times FY26 earnings, according to brokerages. That is below Bharti Airtel’s reported P/E of about 40.7 times, although Jio has a lower return on capital employed and current average revenue per user than Airtel.




said the valuation was around 19% below its valuation for consolidated Industries and maintained a long-term positive outlook. It said Jio’s large customer base, proprietary technology, strong cash generation and multiple growth levers provided comfort despite risks related to capex, competition, regulation and execution.



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Tariff hikes could provide the next trigger


Antique Stock Broking said the IPO price largely reflects Jio’s current subscriber base and average revenue per user, leaving potential upside from tariff increases. It estimated that a 15% tariff hike alone could be worth around ₹190 per share, or roughly 17% upside, before factoring in potential gains from home services, enterprise solutions and technology exports.




“Subscriber growth and ARPU upside not in the price!” Antique said in its report, arguing that Jio’s valuation was broadly in line with Bharti Airtel’s India business on an enterprise-value-to-EBITDA basis. It recommended subscribing to the issue.




Jio’s average revenue per user stood at ₹215.6 in the June 2026 quarter, according to the research reports. Its customer base stood at 533.3 million, while the company carried around 60% of India’s wireless data traffic in FY26.




The company has also established a strong position in home broadband. It had 28.6 million fixed-broadband customers, including JioAirFiber users. Antique estimates that each home connection generates around 2.5 times the average revenue of a mobile user, creating a potentially higher-value growth engine.



Beyond telecom


The long-term thesis rests on Jio becoming more than a connectivity company. Jio has filed 7,220 patent applications across 4G, 5G, 6G, cloud native networks and artificial intelligence driven automation. Its technology stack includes network infrastructure, software, operating systems, digital applications and AI platforms.




said Jio’s opportunities extended across 5G networks, fixed wireless access, feature-phone operating systems, cloud storage, smart-home solutions, enterprise services and AI-enabled products. It assigned the IPO a “Subscribe - Long Term” rating, citing rising ARPU, expanding margins, subscriber growth and a stronger balance sheet.




Antique said Jio’s technology export opportunity was not included in its valuation. A first overseas contract for Jio’s proprietary technology stack could therefore act as a re-rating trigger, it said.




The company’s financial performance has also been strong. Revenue rose from ₹1,09,558 crore in FY24 to ₹1,46,885 crore in FY26, while EBITDA increased to ₹76,255 crore. Its EBITDA margin stood at around 52% in FY26, and net leverage declined to 0.36 times EBITDA.



(Disclaimer: This article has been written by Nikhil Agarwal, who is not a SEBI-registered Research Analyst or an Investment Adviser. Nikhil Agarwal and his/her ‘relative(s)’ (as defined under Section 2(77) of the Companies Act, 2013) do not hold any financial interest in the companies mentioned in this article as of the date of publication. The views/recommendations mentioned in this article, wherever applicable, are those of the respective SEBI-registered Research Analyst/brokerage and have been reproduced/reported with due attribution. They should not be construed as the views or recommendations of The Economic Times Digital or the journalist. Readers are advised to consider the original research report and make their investment decisions based on their own assessment. Brokerage disclaimers )