Akash Ambani says every rupee of the Jio Platforms IPO will go towards cutting debt. The offer documents earmark up to ₹27,500 crore of the ₹30,213 crore fresh issue to prepay loans of the telecom subsidiary, as per the Economic Times.
What Akash Ambani said
Speaking at an investor and media interaction on 15 October 2026, Ambani said Jio is heading to be a net debt-free company. Net debt is borrowings minus cash and liquid investments. He also said the company sees India's digital economy reaching $1.4 trillion by FY31, and that Jio has filed about 7,200 patents. These are his statements, reported by the Economic Times, and not audited figures.
On pricing, he said Jio always has the ability to raise tariffs but would first try to earn more by adding services. The Economic Times puts Jio's mobile revenue per user at about ₹216 a month, against ₹264 for Bharti Airtel.
How much debt is being repaid?
The offer documents set aside up to ₹27,500 crore from the net proceeds to repay or prepay borrowings of Reliance Jio Infocomm, the subsidiary that holds the telecom licences. The balance goes to general corporate purposes. Reliance Industries, which holds 66.43% before the issue, is not selling any shares. The issue is fresh capital only.
The Economic Times reports Jio's net debt fell to about ₹9,539 crore from ₹39,036 crore a year earlier. Gross borrowings are a different number. Our record of the offer document shows total borrowing of ₹70,781 crore on 31 March 2026, down from ₹73,060 crore a year before. So ₹27,500 crore is about 39% of the March 2026 borrowing.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Issue size at upper band | ₹30,213 crore |
| Earmarked to prepay borrowings | Up to ₹27,500 crore |
| Total borrowing, 31 March 2026 | ₹70,781 crore |
| Total borrowing, 31 March 2025 | ₹73,060 crore |
| Net debt now, as per ET | About ₹9,539 crore |
What our data shows
At ₹30,213 crore this is the largest of the 101 mainboard IPOs we track in 2026. On the last 10 mainboard listings, the final grey market quote was off by 11 percentage points on average. It overstated the gain five times and understated it five times. Jio's quote on our tracker was ₹221 on 16 October, about 19.75% of the ₹1,119 upper band. GMP is an unofficial dealer quote, not an exchange price.
What happens next
The price band is ₹1,065 to ₹1,119. The issue opens on 21 October and closes on 23 October. Allotment is expected on 26 October and listing on 28 October on NSE and BSE. Full dates and the live quote are on the Jio Platforms IPO page. Our earlier post on the price band has the lot size and the key dates. The Economic Times report is here.
