Jio Platforms IPO Leads India's Packed Week of New Issues and Listings

A heavy week for India's IPO market

India's primary market goes into the week of October 19 with a lot happening at once. Investors will be bidding for new offerings while a group of last week's issues starts trading. The headline event is Jio Platforms' initial public offering, which runs from October 21 to October 23. Paras Healthcare opens on the same dates. Together the two mainboard deals aim to raise about ₹31,663 crore.21 Nine companies are also due to list next week. The four large mainboard issues that closed on October 19 (Zetwerk, Bonfiglioli Transmissions, Tonbo Imaging and Sahajanand Medical Technologies) are all scheduled to debut on October 23, along with SME issuer Shellz India.17

The headline numbers can hide how uneven demand has been. Over the past two weeks, investors have rushed into some issues and largely ignored others. Grey-market premiums and actual post-listing returns have also drifted apart. These differences matter more than the total count of deals.

How the past week built up

The week of October 12 grew larger as it went on. On October 11, one calendar showed only five issues raising close to ₹1,600 crore, with three mainboard offerings in fire protection, customer experience and medical devices.4 By October 12, the list had grown to nine IPOs worth more than ₹10,500 crore, six of them on the mainboard. The main additions were large deals scheduled to open on October 15.135

Zetwerk was the biggest. The Bengaluru-based manufacturing platform set a price band of ₹143–151 and is raising ₹5,012.3 crore at the top of that range.13 About ₹2,830 crore of that is fresh capital and roughly ₹2,182 crore is an offer for sale.10 Bonfiglioli Transmissions is next at around ₹2,534 crore, and the whole issue is an offer for sale.10 Tonbo Imaging, a defence electronics maker, is raising about ₹852 crore. Sahajanand Medical Technologies, a Gujarat-based maker of cardiovascular devices, is raising about ₹475 crore.13

Some of the published figures differ slightly. Moneycontrol lists Bonfiglioli at ₹2,533.81 crore, while Zee Business and Angel One give ₹2,533.66 crore.121610 The trackers also disagree on HD Fire Protect's listing date. IPO Watch says October 20, while Upstox and IPO Guru say October 21.18178 None of these gaps change the overall picture, but investors should check dates with the exchanges rather than relying on secondary listings.

Strong demand for some issues, weak demand for others

Subscription data shows how selective investors have been. HD Fire Protect sold only existing shares, about 2.63 crore of them, in a price band of ₹258–271.6 It was still subscribed about 131.7 times. Qualified institutional buyers bid more than 256 times their allocation, and non-institutional investors bid more than 203 times.19 Fusion CX, a similar-sized deal that combined ₹500 crore of new shares with an offer for sale, finished at 1.73 times.1210

The four large deals that closed on October 19 showed the same split. By the evening of October 16, Tonbo Imaging was subscribed about four times. Zetwerk, the largest of the four, was at 0.23 times, Sahajanand at 0.35 times and Bonfiglioli at 0.48 times.19 Large issues often receive most of their institutional bids on the final day, so those early numbers did not settle the outcome. Still, the difference was clear.

The grey market showed the same pattern. One tracker put Tonbo's unofficial premium at about 71% over the top of its price band. Bonfiglioli was at about 22% and Sahajanand at about 10%. Zetwerk was at only about 5% and Fusion CX at about 2%.2 Our view is that investors are paying up for defence and niche technology names and holding back on large, mostly secondary-sale deals in industrial sectors. Size alone is not drawing them in.

Jio Platforms: India's largest IPO

Jio Platforms is the most important deal of the week. It is Reliance Industries' digital and telecom arm and the parent of Reliance Jio. The company has set a price band of ₹1,065–1,119 per share. Anchor investors bid on October 19, and the public issue opens two days later.27 At the top of the band, the offering raises ₹30,213 crore and values the company at about ₹10.3 trillion.27 That would beat Hyundai Motor India's ₹27,800 crore IPO from October 2024, which is currently the largest in Indian history.27

The structure is different from most recent large deals. The offering consists only of new shares, up to 27 crore of them, and no existing shareholder is selling.25 About ₹27,500 crore of the money raised is set aside to repay or prepay debt. Upstox reports that the debt belongs to the main subsidiary, Reliance Jio Infocomm.21 The company is also reserving up to ₹500 crore of shares for employees and up to ₹2,500 crore for eligible Reliance Industries shareholders.21 Employees get a discount of ₹54 per share.27

The deal is also smaller than first planned. The amount being raised is almost 14% below the roughly ₹35,000 crore proposed in the draft documents.25 Jio filed that draft on June 19 and, according to reports, received approval from the market regulator, SEBI, on August 28.26 Reliance Industries owns 66.43% of Jio Platforms.25 The Economic Times reports that Meta and Google, both early strategic investors, are not selling any shares.

Valuation: brokerages support the deal

Most coverage of Jio's pricing is positive. The Economic Times reports that Emkay Global and SBI Securities recommend subscribing. They point to Jio's market leadership, pricing power and multiple ways to grow. They also flag risks around valuation, regulation and capital spending. Swastika Investmart compared Jio with its main rival. At the top of the band, it puts Jio's FY26 price-to-earnings ratio at 33.3 times, about 18% below Bharti Airtel's 40.71 times. The same analysts note that Airtel earns more per user and gets better returns on its capital. They still recommend subscribing, citing Jio's 533.3 million customers and its share of about 60% of India's wireless data traffic.

The grey market agrees for now. Premiums are around ₹206–223, or roughly 20% above the top of the band.225 Mint reported that the premium slipped by ₹12 in one day in mid-October.25 That suggests excitement is steady but not rising. Our view is that a deal this large depends on institutional and anchor demand far more than on retail grey-market sentiment. That makes the October 19 anchor book a more useful early signal than the premium.

There is also a smaller disagreement over the deal size. IPO Ji lists it at ₹30,187.65 crore, while Business Standard, Upstox and others use ₹30,213 crore.232721 The difference probably comes from how the employee discount is counted. It has no bearing on whether to invest.

Paras Healthcare

Paras Healthcare is far smaller but opens on the same days. It is raising ₹1,450 crore at ₹660–693 per share, with a minimum bid of 21 shares.213 Its grey-market premium is about 14%.2 The main risk for Paras is timing. Opening alongside a ₹30,000-crore deal could pull both institutional and retail money away from it.

Recent listings have cooled after debut

The most useful context for anyone buying shares is how recent IPOs have traded after listing. Moneycontrol's tracking shows several companies giving up their early gains. SRIT India closed about 13.85% above its issue price on day one but now trades about 23% below it.11 Shah Investors Home has gone from a 2.4% first-day gain to about 18% below its issue price. Vishal Nirmiti listed below its issue price and has fallen about 30% since.11 Snapdeal listed at about 11.6% below its offer price, while Orient Cables jumped nearly 65%.3 SME stocks have been more volatile still. Pind Hospitality and Himalayan Solar both opened well below their issue prices.3

We draw one main conclusion from this. India's IPO pipeline is very full, and Business Standard counts about a dozen companies planning to raise money in October alone. But the market is no longer rewarding every new issue. Strong demand during the subscription window has not reliably led to lasting gains. With so many shares coming to market in one week, investors are judging each deal on its business and its price.

What to watch

These are the key dates for next week:

• October 19: Jio Platforms' anchor book. This is the first concrete sign of how much institutions are willing to commit.
• October 21–23: subscription for Jio Platforms and Paras Healthcare.24
• October 23: Zetwerk, Bonfiglioli, Tonbo, Sahajanand and Shellz India list. Watch whether Zetwerk's slow subscription leads to a weak debut.17
• October 28: the planned listing date for Jio Platforms.23

If Jio's offering is fully subscribed, it will be the largest IPO in India's history. That is not the only thing to watch, though. The bigger question is whether ₹30,000 crore of new supply strengthens a market that has become selective, or draws money away from the other deals competing for investors in the same week.