By Vibhuti Sharma and Aditya Kalra
MUMBAI, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Jio Platforms shares soared 21% in their Mumbai debut on Wednesday, giving India's biggest-ever initial public offering a roaring start and Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries its first listing in two decades.
With the listing, Jio, whose telecoms business serves more than 530 million customers, has become the second-largest company by market capitalisation in India, trailing its parent, Reliance. Ambani's digital and telecoms unit is backed
by Meta Platforms and Alphabet's Google.
The stock opened at 1,358 rupees a share, compared with its 1,119-rupee offer price. Jio is now valued at about $131.52 billion, overtaking Bharti Airtel and HDFC Bank as the second-largest Indian firm in terms of market capitalisation.
The listing furthers Ambani's plan to turn Jio's parent Reliance Industries from an oil-and-chemicals conglomerate into an "everything company" spanning consumer and technology.
The listing ceremony for Jio was attended by Mukesh Ambani, Akash Ambani, his eldest son, who is Jio's managing director, and his wife Nita Ambani. Ambani's other children Isha and Anant Ambani also attended.
An emotional Mukesh Ambani was seen in tears as Anant traced Reliance’s and Jio’s legacies and journey in a speech at the ceremony.
The family rang the IPO bell on stage at the National Stock Exchange in Mumbai.
A BUSY IPO MARKET
Major Indian newspapers on Wednesday carried front-page ads from Reliance Jio, saying "Thank you, India."
Ahead of the listing, the premium for Jio shares in the grey market — an unregulated market that allows investors to trade in unlisted shares — indicated gains of about 22%.
India has become the world's busiest IPO market this year in terms of the number of deals, with 246 listings so far, though it ranked fourth by money raised at $13.5 billion, behind the US, mainland China and Hong Kong, LSEG data showed.
Several brokerages called the $108.3 billion valuation attractive, with some pointing to potential upside, though they flagged competition, heavy capital spending and changes in India's telecom rules, including those related to spectrum, licensing and fees, as risks.
(Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma in Mumbai; Editing by Susan Fenton and Thomas Derpinghaus)
