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On Monday, Jio Platforms Ltd tapped into record institutional demand when it allocated shares worth ₹8,110 crore in its initial public offer to anchor investors among top names in the global finance.
Financial institutions and brokerages are stepping up efforts to draw retail investors into the ₹30,213-crore IPO, as syndicate bankers aim for strong retail demand and a successful listing. “Platforms have been asked to focus their outreach on active as well as inactive trading accounts to build retail volume,” said a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the details are private. “The effort aims to sustain retail buying interest through the listing date.”
The push comes at a time when the broader Indian market is gripped by negative sentiment, with the benchmark Nifty 50 down more than 10% this year, making it one of Asia’s worst-performing indexes.“Considering the size of the book and the lacklustre market conditions, good retail participation will be important to ensure a listing pop,” said a person involved in syndicating the offer.
Investors such as Life Insurance Corp. of India, BlackRock Inc., Fidelity Management & Research, Capital Group and Allianz SE, besides sovereign wealth funds, including the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the Government of Singapore, the Qatar Investment Authority and Norges Bank Investment Management have taken anchor positions in the offer, a stock exchange filing by Jio Platforms showed.
Brokerages and non-banking financial companies, including SBI Securities Ltd and Jio Financial Services Ltd, are advertising short-term loans to investors through apps and text messages to help them participate in the IPO.
Mint reviewed a text message from HDFC Securities Ltd to a retail investor with an inactive trading account, encouraging the client to participate in the IPO. “Hey there, we tried calling you about the Jio IPO,” the message read. “Your trading account is inactive. Reactivate now and stay investment-ready,” it added.
On 16 October, Bloomberg reported that Reliance Industries had released employee salaries 15 days ahead of schedule to encourage participation in the offer. The report also said the company had reached out to most of its 420,000 employees across group firms, asking them to participate in the IPO.
Emails sent to spokespersons for Reliance Industries and Jio Platforms did not elicit responses by press time.
Institutions are offering margin funding covering 60% to 90% of the total application value, according to terms reviewed by Mint. Loan tenures range from 15 to 90 days, with allotted shares held by lenders as collateral until the loans are fully repaid.
Short-term IPO financing is an established practice in India’s capital markets. Investors regularly use margin funding from non-banks and brokerages to increase their bidding capacity and the amount they can apply for.
While IPO financing is a standard offering across financial institutions, targeted advertising campaigns promoting credit are rare; historically, brokerages have marketed general-purpose leveraged trading accounts.
Neither India’s markets regulator nor its banking regulator has rules against such offers. “IPO financing has been offered around earlier large public issues; the current concern is the scale and direct marketing of leverage around one issuer,” said Alay Razvi, managing partner at law firm Accord Juris.
Retail appetite remains strong for Jio Platforms shares going by a ₹243 grey market premium, about 22% above the upper issue price of ₹1,119, according to data from InvestorGain, signalling expectations of listing gains.
Emkay Global Financial Services values Jio at 15.6 times its FY26 enterprise value-to-Ebitda and recommends subscribing to the IPO. Centrum Broking values Jio’s equity at ₹11.5 trillion, using an enterprise value-to-Ebitda multiple of 12 times estimated FY28 Ebitda. By comparison, Bharti Airtel, whose operations includes a business in Africa and the Indus Tower unit, trades at 8.59 times its estimated FY28 Ebitda, according to Bloomberg data.
Agnidev is a business journalist with over two years of reporting experience tracking the intersection of capital, policy, and corporate strategy in India.<br><br>He joined Mint in December 2025, after a stint at NDTV Profit (erstwhile BQ Prime). At Mint, Agnidev focuses on the high-stakes world of the Indian capital market, specialising in mergers and acquisitions, burgeoning IPOs, and the investment banking industry.<br><br>Backed by a rigorous, data-driven approach, Agnidev frequently breaks news on the valuation cycles, deal pipelines and listing strategies of India’s most prominent companies. His reportage offers deep dives into the operational health of market leaders across the corporate landscape, providing readers with a clear-eyed view of institutional growth.<br><br>He has reported on major issues like India's derivatives frenzy, IPO froth, the competitive quick commerce industry, the real-money gaming ban, and has broken investigative stories related to scandals such as IndusInd Bank's accounting manipulation and the Gensol-BluSmart fiasco.<br><br>As a reporter, he brings stories that ultimately affect your stock market investments, and tries to bring clarity and brevity in a field that is often filled with jargon and noise.
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