On Sunday, July 10, 2011, Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries Limited, attended the Ajay Mushran Memorial Lecture in New Delhi, India.
Pankaj Nangia | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani is aiming to list his telecoms company Jio in Mumbai in 2025, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters, with analysts valuing Jio at more than $100 billion. It plans to launch an IPO of its retail unit at a later date.
Reliance Industries boss Ambani has yet to update his IPO timetable after saying in 2019 that Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail would be “moving towards” listings within five years.
In recent years, Ambani, Asia’s richest man, has raised a total of $25 billion for digital, telecom and retail businesses from companies such as KKR, General Atlantic and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, both of which are valued at more than $100 billion.
Two sources said Reliance has now finalized plans to launch the Reliance Jio IPO in 2025, as the company internally believes that the company has achieved stable business and revenue streams to become India’s largest telecom operator with 479 million users .
But the retail business is not expected to IPO until after 2025, the first source said, as the company first needs to resolve some internal business and operational challenges.
Oil retail group Reliance Industries did not respond to a request for comment.
Reliance Jio will be at loggerheads with Musk if he launches Starlink internet service in India, while Jio, which is also backed by Google and Meta, has partnered with Nvidia to develop artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Sources said no internal decision has been made on Reliance Jio’s valuation and bankers have not yet been appointed, but Jefferies in July estimated the company’s IPO valuation at $112 billion.
However, Reliance is aiming for Jio’s 2025 IPO to become India’s largest ever, surpassing Hyundai India’s record $3.3 billion IPO this year, the first source said.
The IPO timetable could still change, two sources said on condition of anonymity because discussions are private.
The Indian market has hit record highs recently, with 270 companies raising $12.58 billion through Indian IPOs this year as of October, exceeding the $7.42 billion raised in all of 2023.
Needs retail repair
Both sources said Reliance’s current thinking is not to list the retail unit in the same year as JIO as it does not want to have two big IPOs at the same time.
More importantly, Reliance internally wants to resolve “operational issues” in its retail unit, which operates India’s largest grocery store network with 3,000 supermarkets, ahead of an IPO, the first source said.
The person said the company has grown “too fast” and has branched out into various retail formats, including e-commerce, and some of its brick-and-mortar stores have been losing money for years, resulting in suboptimal revenue per square foot of space.
Reliance Retail, whose empire includes fashion stores, grocery stores and electronics stores, has also made a foray into e-commerce in recent years to compete with Amazon.
Now it’s expanding into faster delivery to take advantage of the boom in quick commerce – a new shopping craze in which products can be delivered in 10 minutes.
The company reported a 1.1% annual decline in sales from July to September, its first quarterly sales decline in at least three years, as competition from fast-moving commerce startups is expected to eat into its share of supermarket sales.
Bernstein last year valued the company, which owns toy retailer Hamleys and has partnerships in India with brands including Jimmy Choo, Marks & Spencer and Pret A Manger, at $112 billion.
Jio Platforms, which owns telecom and digital businesses, has raised $17.84 billion in funding in recent years, with foreign investors holding 33% of its shares. Reliance Retail sold about 12% of its shares to foreign investors during the same period, raising $7.44 billion.
