BlackRock, GIC among investors chasing Indian telecom major Jio’s IPO as anchor bids top $26 billion

The country's largest telecommunications and digital services company, backed by Meta and Google, plans to raise up to 302 billion rupees ($3.2 billion) through India's largest ever IPO in rupee terms.

According to the source, who is not allowed to speak on the matter due to legal restrictions, the company's anchor book received total bids worth 2.5 trillion rupees ($26.3 billion) for the 81.1 billion rupee anchor book portion.

Jio Platforms, in a release on Monday, said it had finalized the allocation of 72.47 million equity shares to anchor investors at 1,119 rupees a share, at the upper range of the price band.

The anchor book is a portion of the total fundraise set aside for large institutional investors before the IPO opens for public bidding.

Some other major institutional investors who have been allocated shares include India's state-owned insurance firm Life Insurance Corporation, Fidelity Investments, JPMorgan Asset Management and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

The Jio Platforms IPO will be open to the public from Wednesday through Friday. Jio Platforms, owned by Reliance Industries, has been positioning itself as a tech company and not just a traditional utility provider. The IPO price values the company at around $108 billion — lower than the valuations of over $130 billion floated a year ago.