According to recent valuations, Bank of America has set a whopping $107 billion price tag for Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Platforms. This puts the Indian telecom and digital conglomerate at a staggering 64.6% higher value than its previous valuation of $65 billion, which attracted investments from the likes of Meta, Google, and other technology giants in a mammoth fundraising in 2020.
This reassessment of valuation comes at a crucial time for Reliance, as they are expected to undertake initial public offerings for both Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail. In the past year, Jio Platforms has raised over $20 billion from investments by companies such as Meta, Google, Silver Lake, and Vista Equity Partners, among others. Additionally, Reliance Retail, which raised $7 billion in 2020, recently received $1.85 billion at a valuation of $100 billion.
In 2019, at its annual general meeting, Reliance Industries had announced its plans for IPOs of both these businesses within the next five years. The company also took its financial services arm, Jio Financial, public last year.
Mukesh Ambani made another major announcement in August, confirming that he will lead Reliance Industries for another five years and mentor his children to take the $211 billion Indian oil-to-telecom giant to even greater heights of growth and value in the decades to come. As part of the succession plan, Ambani’s children – Isha, Akash, and Anant – have been appointed as non-executive directors to the board.
Bank of America, in a note to clients, stated its belief that Jio Platforms, with its dominant position in the Indian telecom market, will continue to attract more subscribers this year. The investment bank also predicts that JioBharat, an advanced feature phone, and Jio AirFiber, a wireless broadband device, will help Jio make deeper inroads into the market.
Bank of America also anticipates a potential increase in tariff rates in the second half of the year, for the Indian telecom industry as a whole, according to their report. The investment bank further adds that Jio Platforms could capitalize on three key areas within the enterprise business: government contracts, small and medium enterprises, and corporations by offering VAS.
