Jio Platforms Limited IPO

01At a glance

What the company does — owns Reliance Jio Infocomm, the licensed telecom operator, and sells mobile and home broadband connectivity, enterprise connectivity and digital services — cloud, entertainment, smart home, AI products — on top of it (AP p.3, AP p.4).

Who pays it — 524.4 million customers of Reliance Jio Infocomm at 31 March 2026, plus businesses buying connectivity and managed services; the document states revenue concentration among the top five customers is not applicable (AP p.3, AP p.4).

Why it is raising money — to prepay up to ₹275,000 million of borrowings taken by Reliance Jio Infocomm, including external commercial borrowings, and for general corporate purposes. Nothing else (DRHP p.107).

How fast it has grown — revenue from ₹1,095,581 million in FY24 to ₹1,468,853 million in FY26, and profit after tax from ₹214,232 million to ₹300,491 million (AP p.7).

The one thing to understand — the issue is small against the company. Up to 27 crore new shares would be about 2.9% of the enlarged capital; Reliance Industries keeps about 64.5%, and Meta and Google together hold 17.7% before the issue (AP p.1, AP p.5, AP p.6).

02The business, in plain words

A telecom network is towers, fibre and spectrum. A customer pays a monthly fee for access to it, and the operator's job is to fill the network with as many paying customers using as much data as possible, at the highest fee they will accept, without the network costing more than it earns.

A household or a phone user wants internet access → it chooses a plan on the Jio network → Reliance Jio Infocomm carries its data over spectrum it holds, towers and fibre it uses, and its own core network → it is paid a monthly fee per customer, plus revenue from services sold on top.

Jio Platforms describes itself as a technology platform built on that connectivity. For consumers it sells wireless and fixed broadband, digital services across entertainment, cloud gaming, cloud compute and storage and smart home, and access to AI products such as assistants. For businesses it sells enterprise broadband and leased lines, cloud, unified communications, IoT, managed Wi-Fi, private 5G and security, and managed information and communication services (AP p.3, AP p.4).

It reports a single operating segment under Ind AS 108, and most operations are in India (AP p.4). Among its stated strategies is to monetise its platforms in overseas markets (AP p.4).

Earnings equation: Revenue ≈ customers × monthly revenue per customer (ARPU) × 12, plus enterprise and digital services. At the FY26 exit quarter, ARPU was ₹214.0 a month on 524.4 million customers (AP p.8).

03Where the money comes from

The document does not split revenue by product line, customer type or geography in the summary sections read: it reports one segment and states that top-five customer concentration is not applicable (AP p.4). What it does give is the customer base and what each customer pays and uses.

Source: AP p.8.

There is no customer concentration to speak of — 524.4 million subscribers, no single one material. The concentration in this business runs the other way, towards its suppliers: the document names dependence on a limited group of passive-infrastructure providers for a substantial part of its towers and fibre (AP p.10), and on non-exclusive agreements with Reliance group companies for key parts of its business (AP p.9, AP p.10).

04The growth record

Source: AP p.7, AP p.8.

Revenue compounded at 15.8% a year over the two years, EBITDA at 17.8% and profit after tax at 18.4%. The EBITDA margin rose 175 basis points and the profit margin 91 (AP p.8). Earnings per share were ₹23.96, ₹29.21 and ₹33.63 (AP p.7).

Read from the filing: this is a large, profitable, cash-generative business whose return on equity is modest because of how much capital the network carries — net worth of ₹3,340,134 million against profit of ₹300,491 million (AP p.7). EBITDA less cash capital expenditure, the company's own measure of what the network leaves over, went from ₹14,491 million in FY24 to ₹420,711 million in FY26 (AP p.8).

05What the growth is made of

Revenue rose ₹373,272 million between FY24 and FY26, 34.1% over two years. The operating measures allow a rough split. Customers rose 8.8%, from 481.8 million to 524.4 million, and exit-quarter ARPU rose 17.8%, from ₹181.7 to ₹214.0 (AP p.8).

This is a judgement, not a disclosure: on those two figures, roughly two-thirds of the growth came from each customer paying more and one-third from more customers. ARPU is an exit-quarter figure for the licensed subsidiary while revenue is consolidated for the full year, so the split is indicative.

Usage grew faster than either. Data traffic rose 62.6% and data per customer 47.4% over the same two years (AP p.8), which is what the network has to carry and what the capital spending pays for.

Customer additions were uneven: 42.5 million in FY24, 6.4 million in FY25, 36.2 million in FY26 (AP p.8). The document does not explain the FY25 dip in the summary sections read.

06Earnings quality

Operating cash flow was more than twice reported profit in every year, as it usually is for a network owner with heavy depreciation (AP p.7). The line that needs explaining is the one in the last row: the subsidiary faces ₹67,667 million of GST and input-tax-credit demands, which the company has chosen not to show as a contingent liability, on the basis of judicial precedent and its view of the merits (AP p.12). A reader should hold that figure beside the ₹275,000 million being prepaid.

07The balance sheet

Total borrowings were ₹707,810 million at 31 March 2026, against ₹730,603 million a year earlier and ₹543,489 million two years earlier (AP p.7). Fund-based borrowings of the company and its subsidiaries were ₹715,292 million at the same date, and loan covenants require lender consent for, among other things, mergers and dividends (AP p.10). Net worth was ₹3,340,134 million (AP p.7).

The prepayment object is stated in rupees, so one line of the post-issue balance sheet can be drawn. This is a judgement, not a disclosure: ₹275,000 million against ₹707,810 million of borrowings would remove about 38.9% of the debt, and on FY26 EBITDA of ₹762,554 million, net leverage would fall well below the 0.36× the company reports (DRHP p.107, AP p.8).

The company says as much itself: it expects the prepayment to reduce net debt and servicing costs and improve net leverage and net asset value per share (DRHP p.107).

08What the money is for

The issue is a fresh issue of up to 27,00,00,000 equity shares of ₹10 face value. There is no offer for sale (AP p.1).

Source: DRHP p.107. General corporate purposes are capped at 25% of gross proceeds (DRHP p.107).

The subsidiary may refinance these borrowings before the issue, in which case the proceeds may prepay the refinanced or additional borrowings instead, with details to come in the red herring prospectus (DRHP p.107).

Into the business the whole of it, applied almost entirely to the subsidiary's debt. To selling shareholders nil. There is no offer for sale (AP p.1).

The issue also carries a reservation for eligible shareholders of Reliance Industries, alongside the usual institutional, non-institutional, retail and employee portions (AP p.1).

09Who is selling

Nobody. The offer for sale is stated as not applicable (AP p.1). Neither Reliance Industries nor any of the global investors that bought into the company is offering shares in this issue.

10Promoters

The promoter is Reliance Industries Limited, which the document describes as having started in textiles and polyester and now spanning hydrocarbon exploration and production, refining and marketing, petrochemicals, advanced materials, renewables, retail, digital services and media (AP p.5).

Reliance holds 5,937,841,645 shares, 66.43% of pre-issue capital, at a weighted average cost of acquisition of ₹89.58 a share. It has acquired no shares in the last year, and no equity shares of the company were transacted by anyone in the last one or three years (AP p.5, AP p.10, AP p.11).

The board is chaired by Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani as non-executive chairman. Akash Mukesh Ambani is managing director; Isha Mukesh Ambani, Anant Mukesh Ambani and Manoj Harjivandas Modi are non-executive directors. The independent directors are Raminder Singh Gujral, Dr Shumeet Banerji, Haigreve Khaitan, Dinesh Hasmukhrai Kanabar and Zia Jaydev Mody. Pankaj Mohan Pawar is chief executive officer, Saurabh Sancheti chief financial officer and Mathew Oommen group president (AP p.11).

Litigation and regulatory. Against Reliance Industries: 3 criminal proceedings, 745 tax proceedings, 2 disciplinary actions by SEBI or the stock exchanges in the last five years and 4 material civil matters, aggregating ₹403,106 million and US$4.13 billion to the extent quantifiable (AP p.12). The long-running matter over Reliance's 2007 trades in Reliance Petroleum shares was disposed of by the Supreme Court on 29 May 2026 (AP p.12).

Related dealings. The company and its subsidiaries have non-exclusive agreements with Reliance Industries, Reliance Retail and other group entities for certain key aspects of the business, and the company does not control the use of the "Jio" trademark by other Reliance group companies (AP p.9, AP p.10).

11Who already owns it

Source: AP p.5, AP p.6, AP p.7.

The register is Reliance plus the strategic and financial investors that came in when the platform raised capital, among them two of the world's largest technology companies and several sovereign funds. None of them is selling in this issue (AP p.1).

This is a judgement, not a disclosure: pre-issue capital is 8,939,000,000 shares (₹89,390 million at ₹10 each, AP p.7). On the full 27,00,00,000 fresh shares, post-issue capital would be 9,209,000,000 shares; Reliance would hold about 64.48%, and the issue would be about 2.93% of the enlarged capital.

12What changed just before the IPO

• Customer additions recovered to 36.2 million in FY26 from 6.4 million in FY25 (AP p.8).
• ARPU rose from ₹181.7 to ₹214.0 a month over two years (AP p.8).
• Free cash after capital spending turned large. EBITDA less cash capex went from ₹14,491 million to ₹420,711 million (AP p.8).
• Leverage halved. Net debt to EBITDA from 0.71× to 0.36× in FY26, and financing flows turned to a net outflow of ₹254,190 million as debt was reduced (AP p.8).
• Return on capital employed fell from 12.83% to 10.76% over the two years, while return on net worth rose (AP p.8).
• A regulatory matter involving the promoter closed. The Supreme Court disposed of the appeals in the 2007 Reliance Petroleum share-trading matter on 29 May 2026 (AP p.12).
• No share transactions for three years. No equity shares of the company changed hands in the three years before the DRHP (AP p.11).

13Capacity and expansion

A telecom network's capacity is spectrum, sites and fibre rather than tonnes, and the summary sections read give no inventory of towers, fibre kilometres or spectrum holdings. What the document gives is load: 241.4 billion GB of data in FY26, 62.6% more than two years earlier, and 42.3 GB per customer a month at the exit quarter (AP p.8).

Capital spending is visible in the cash flow: investing outflows of ₹565,876 million, ₹637,264 million and ₹435,909 million over the three years (AP p.8). The industry report notes that about 41% of India's mobile broadband customers had moved to 5G within four years by December 2025 (AP p.4).

Nothing in the issue funds capacity. The proceeds prepay debt (DRHP p.107). The document's risk factors name the requirements that follow from the business: continued spending on technology upgrades, and the ability to renew licences and win spectrum in future auctions (AP p.9, AP p.10).

14Market size and industry structure

As claimed. The industry figures come from a report by Analysys Mason. It projects India's digital economy at US$1.4 trillion (₹125.8 trillion) by FY2031, describes India as one of the fastest adopters of 5G, with about 41% of mobile broadband customers moving to it within four years as of December 2025, and describes fixed broadband penetration as lagging both developing and developed markets, with a wide urban–rural gap (AP p.3, AP p.4, AP p.5).

The part that is addressable. Indian mobile and home connectivity and the digital and enterprise services sold over it. The digital-economy figure is the economy the connectivity serves, not the telecom market.

What the company is today. By customers, the largest operator named in its own peer table: 524.4 million against 482.4 million for Bharti Airtel's India business excluding passive infrastructure and 192.8 million for Vodafone Idea (DRHP p.123).

Industry figures above come from the report cited in the offer document and are labelled as such.

15Competitive position

Source: DRHP p.123. Jio's ARPU is for all customers of the licensed entity; Airtel's is its India mobile figure, so the two are close but not identical measures, as the document itself cautions (DRHP p.122).

Three private operators and the figures above describe the market: the company has the most customers, Airtel added more customers in FY26 and earns more per mobile customer, and Vodafone Idea lost customers.

What the document gives as the basis for its position is full-stack proprietary technology, the scale of the network, a record of growth and profitability, and a single platform for mobile, home and digital services (AP p.4). What it does not give in the sections read is market share by revenue, spectrum holdings against competitors, or network quality measures.

16Peers the company named

Peers named in the offer document: Bharti Airtel Limited and Vodafone Idea Limited (DRHP p.118).

Source: DRHP p.118, peers' consolidated figures for the year ended 31 March 2026. Vodafone Idea's return on net worth is not meaningful because its average net worth is negative (DRHP p.118).

The peer set is the obvious one: the other two private operators. Bharti Airtel's revenue includes Africa and other businesses, which is why the document also sets out Airtel's India figures excluding passive infrastructure in its KPI comparison (DRHP p.123). Where this issue sits against those multiples cannot be said until a price band exists.

17Risks, in plain words

Licences and spectrum. The operator depends on telecom licences and spectrum that must be renewed and, for new bands, won at auction (AP p.9). An operator without spectrum cannot carry traffic.

Network. Prolonged outages or degraded quality can bring regulatory penalties and lose customers (AP p.9). With 524.4 million customers, a network failure is a national event.

Suppliers. A limited group of passive-infrastructure providers supplies a substantial part of the towers and fibre (AP p.10).

Group dependence. Key parts of the business run on non-exclusive agreements with Reliance Industries, Reliance Retail and other group companies, and the company does not control how the rest of the group uses the "Jio" name (AP p.9, AP p.10).

Debt and capital spending. Fund-based borrowings were ₹715,292 million at 31 March 2026, with covenants that require lender consent for mergers and dividends and cross-default provisions (AP p.10). The business requires continuous capital spending on upgrades.

Regulation. TRAI and the Department of Telecommunications oversee pricing, licences and conduct, and non-compliance can lead to suspension, non-renewal or additional payments (AP p.10).

Technology and churn. The industry changes quickly and monthly churn was 1.67% at the FY26 exit quarter (AP p.9, AP p.10).

Tax. ₹67,667 million of GST and input-tax-credit demands on the subsidiary are not shown as a contingent liability (AP p.12).

18Litigation and regulatory matters

Source: AP p.11, AP p.12, to the extent quantifiable, material civil matters under the company's materiality policy.

The company itself carries little: eight tax matters worth ₹74 million. The weight sits with the operating subsidiary — ₹108,110 million, mostly tax, including the ₹67,667 million of GST disputes — and with the promoter, Reliance Industries, whose figures reflect a conglomerate's docket rather than this business (AP p.12).

19Related-party transactions

Not read for this study beyond what the summary states: that the company, directly or through subsidiaries, depends on non-exclusive agreements with Reliance Industries, Reliance Retail and other Reliance group entities for certain key aspects of its business, and that any disruption to those services could affect it (AP p.9, AP p.10). The restated related-party note, where the amounts are, was not reached. This is a gap in this version of the study rather than a finding, and it will be filled at the red herring prospectus stage.

20What the offer document does not say

In the sections read for this study, the document does not give:

• Revenue by product line — mobile, home broadband, enterprise, digital services — since it reports one segment (AP p.4).
• Spectrum holdings, tower count or fibre kilometres.
• The amounts paid to Reliance group companies under the non-exclusive agreements (AP p.9).
• Why net customer additions fell to 6.4 million in FY25 (AP p.8).
• The share of passive infrastructure supplied by the largest provider (AP p.10).
• The price band, lot size or issue dates, which is normal at DRHP stage.

21Five questions for management

1. Of the ₹373,272 million revenue increase over FY24 to FY26, how much came from tariff changes, how much from customer growth, and how much from home broadband and enterprise?
2. What share of towers and fibre comes from the largest passive-infrastructure provider, and on what term?
3. How much did the company pay Reliance Industries, Reliance Retail and other group companies in FY26, and for what?
4. What is the basis for not treating ₹67,667 million of GST and input-tax-credit demands as a contingent liability?
5. With net leverage at 0.36× before the issue, what is the plan for the balance sheet after ₹275,000 million is prepaid?

2Sources and cited facts

This study was read from 2 documents the company filed. The 65 figures it cites are listed under the document each came from, with the page and the sentence as printed.