Institutional demand for the Jio Platforms share offering exceeded the anchor book by more than 30 times compared to the volume available in the anchor book. As a result, Jio Platforms allocated shares worth ₹8,109.85 crore to 212 anchor investors at the upper end of the price band, according to exchange documents and sources familiar with the situation.
The allocation of 7.24 crore shares at a price of ₹1,119 per share is taking place just before the start of the public subscription for the initial public offering, which opens on Wednesday.
This high level of demand highlights the interest of institutional investors in what is expected to be India's largest IPO, although the extent of this interest among the general public will become clear after the offer opens.
Life Insurance Corporation of India received the largest allocation, securing ₹499.98 crore, which accounts for 6.17 percent of the anchor portion. New World Fund Inc received shares worth ₹486.27 crore, followed by the Government of Singapore with ₹340.93 crore, SBI Focused Fund with ₹315 crore, and BNP Paribas Financial Markets - ODI with ₹303.25 crore.
Internal mutual funds received 2.489 crore shares totaling ₹2,784.96 crore, corresponding to 34.34 percent of the anchor book, through 95 schemes across 25 fund houses. Insurance companies and pension funds received 97.4 lakh shares worth ₹1,089.95 crore, or 13.44 percent of the total volume.
Both categories exceeded the volumes reserved for them in the prospectus dated October 14, which stipulated the allocation of 33.33 percent of the anchor portion to mutual funds and 6.67 percent to insurance companies and pension funds.
Global investment firms participating in the anchor book include BlackRock, Capital Group, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, Schroders, JPMorgan Asset Management, Franklin Templeton, and Janus Henderson. Among sovereign and government investment institutions are the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, as well as other long-term institutional investors.
Sources close to the matter reported that some large foreign and domestic institutions placed bids for assets valued between $750 million and over $1 billion.
Jio Platforms plans to raise approximately ₹30,213 crore through a new issue of up to 27 crore shares at a price range of ₹1,065 to ₹1,119 per share. According to the offering documents, this values the company at approximately $108 billion USD.
The IPO is scheduled to open on October 21 and close on October 23.