India's record for the largest-ever IPO fundraising may be about to be broken.

On October 9, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, Jio Platforms, the telecom and digital services company owned by India's richest man Mukesh Ambani, has preliminarily set an issue price range of 1,065 to 1,119 rupees per share and plans to open public subscription on October 21. The people familiar with the matter said the company is targeting a valuation of up to 10.3 trillion rupees, equivalent to about 106.5 billion U.S. dollars.

Based on Bloomberg calculations, at the upper limit of the issue price range, Jio's IPO would raise about 302 billion rupees, or about 3.1 billion U.S. dollars. If completed successfully, it would surpass the 278 billion rupee record set by Hyundai Motor India in October 2024 and become the largest IPO by fundraising scale in India's history.

However, this valuation is lower than earlier market expectations. Previously circulating market estimates ranged from 130 billion to 170 billion U.S. dollars, while the maximum market value corresponding to this IPO is about 107 billion U.S. dollars. The people familiar with the matter said the issue price, valuation and timetable may still be adjusted.

Issuance Arrangements Gradually Take Shape, Valuation Below Earlier Expectations

According to reports, Jio plans to open cornerstone investor subscriptions on October 19, conduct public subscription from October 21 to 23, and is expected to list for trading on October 28.

Jio submitted a draft prospectus to regulators in June this year and plans to issue up to 270 million new shares, equivalent to about 2.93% of the total share capital after issuance. A total of 19 banks are participating in underwriting the IPO, including Kotak Mahindra Capital, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Axis Capital, BNP Paribas and Citigroup.

Some brokerages had previously given valuations higher than this IPO pricing. Motilal Oswal Financial Services estimated in June this year that Jio's valuation was about 115 billion to 118 billion U.S. dollars, while Dolat Capital's valuation was about 110 billion U.S. dollars. The recent correction in the Indian stock market has also put pressure on market pricing expectations for several IPOs.

As the core subsidiary of Reliance Industries responsible for telecom and digital services, the subscription situation for Jio's IPO will test the market's capacity to absorb an ultra-large new listing and provide a reference for the pricing of subsequent large IPOs in India.