The ball is rolling on India’s largest initial public offering (IPO) yet. Late in August, Mukesh Ambani, the billionaire chief of the country’s largest company, Reliance Industries, said he plans to list Jio Platforms in the first half of 2026.

The pitch is perfect, and the timing is right. The company—which houses Reliance’s telecom and digital verticals, including India’s largest telecom company Reliance Jio Infocomm—is in its prime. Its profit grew 22% in FY25 to over Rs 26,100 crore; its cash flows spiked; and it also stands to gain from the telecom tariff hikeThe KenJio, Airtel hike entry-level pricing, but lose ‘cheapest data’ tag in emerging markets announced in August. There’s at least one more such hike on the cards.

Yet, existing financial investors in Jio Platforms—KKR, Silver Lake Platforms, Vista Equity Partners, and the like—will likely be underwhelmed once it hits the bourses. Despite the hefty valuation the company is expected to command in the IPO—Rs 12 lakh crore or $135 billion—the annualised returns they’d make since their stake buy in 2020 would be under 16%, according to The Ken’s calculations.

They’d have made far more had they chosen to back rival firm, Bharti Airtel, instead. In the five years to June 2025, the company more than tripled its market capitalisation to $133 billion. Even simple large-cap indices like the Nifty 50 have delivered higher returns than what these investors would have made on their Jio Platforms investments.

It’s not just disappointing for past investors who paid top dollar. Investors in Jio’s IPO, too, might end up paying a premium for the stock and staring at weak returns.

Not so pricey, yet so pricey.

Riding on hope, dealing with reality

With Sebi recently easingThe Economic TimesSebi eases minimum public offer norms, minimum public shareholding timelines for large IPOs IPO norms of large companies, a minimum of 2.5% stake sale would set Jio Platforms’ issue size at about Rs 30,000 crore, according to research house Motilal Oswal. That brings the company’s valuation to nearly $135 billion—higher than rival Bharti Airtel, even if just.