Within billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries, debates and discussions are ongoing about which business will go public first, according to a report by the Hindu Businessline. And it added, citing sources, that it is highly likely that Reliance Jio Infocomm will be the first to debut on the public markets ahead of other businesses.
While discussions are still in the initial stages, top officials, sources told the paper, favoured the telco making its public markets debut first, adding that they view it as a more "mature" business.
Livemint could not independently verify the report.
They added that Reliance Industries (RIL) is considering a potential valuation of around $100 billion, with a share price of approximately ₹1,200 per share. The IPO will include a large offer-for-sale (OFS) component, the paper said.
It added that analysts estimate Jio's valuation at $82-94 billion, and an expected hike in mobile tariffs later this year is anticipated to boost these valuations.
RIL did not respond to queries, it said.
Launched in 2016 and gaining a huge subscriber base due to its pricing strategy, Jio reportedly postponed plans for an equity markets entry in 2020 after 13 foreign investors poured investment, valuing it around $57-64 billion, as per the report. These investors included Meta (9.9 per cent) and Google (7.73 per cent). Now, a significant factor influencing this decision is the opportunity for private equity (PE) and other investors, who invested over $20 billion in 2020, to exit, the report added.
The report also noted that telecom is an expensive business due to the spectrum acquisition and infrastructure set-up. It added that Jio's recent focus on 5G has seen a bulk of its ₹53,000 crore capex allocated to this roll-out. RIL plans to scale down capex, with most funding to come from internal accruals, it said.
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