The upcoming public listing of Jio Platforms Ltd. (JPL) is setting unprecedented benchmarks in the Indian capital markets. Garnering an overwhelming vote of confidence from top-tier institutional investors across the globe, the IPO’s anchor book underscores massive trust in the Jio growth story.
Aggregate institutional demand reached approximately ₹2.5 lakh crore, marking the first time in Indian capital market history that any initial public offering has breached this threshold, sources with knowledge of the matter told CNBC-TV8.
A total of ₹8,110 crore, out of the total planned fund raise of ₹30,213 crore saw demand exceeding 30 times the size. The anchor book features sovereign wealth funds, leading domestic mutual funds, foreign institutional investors, insurance companies and others, the sources added.
Among prominent investors in the Jio Platforms anchor book include BlackRock, Capital Group, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, Schroders, JPMorgan Asset Management, Franklin Templeton, Invesco, and Janus Henderson, sources said, adding that sovereign wealth funds such as Singapore’s GIC, Abu Dhabi’s ADIA, Qatar’s QIA, and Norway’s Norges Bank Investment Management, are also part of the bidders.
Nearly all among the top 10 mutual funds of India have placed their bets on the Jio Platforms Anchor Book, led by SBI MF, ICICI Prudential MF, HDFC MF, Aditya Birla Sun Life MF, Nippon India MF, and Kotak MF. Insurance companies such as LIC, HDFC Life, SBI Life, SBI Pension, HDFC Pension and ICICI Prudential are among the backers as well.
Foreign long-only funds, sovereign wealth funds, and pension funds account for the vast bulk of total demand, the sources said. A strong anchor book is expected to flow through into record main-book participation and listing day gains and renew interest in Indian equity markets, they added.
The sources added that the strong demand in the anchor book has created a fresh scramble for the Jio management and the bankers, adding that large, foreign long only, and sovereign wealth funds along with domestic mutual funds have bid anywhere between $750 million and $1 billion each, and have asked for a lion’s share of the anchor book.;
Most of the tier-1 funds are likely to receive shares between ₹400 crore to ₹450 crore, sources added. The overall book will have one of the largest list of funds across the globe with a long tail of funds getting shares between ₹10 crore to ₹20 crore.
Official details of the anchor book will be released later in the day, while the Mega Jio Platforms IPO, will open for subscription on Wednesday, October 21.