Akash Ambani’s Jio Platforms is entering the stock market at a moment when India’s equity culture looks very different from the one his grandfather Dhirubhai Ambani encountered in 1977. Reliance Textile Industries’ first public issue raised about Rs 2.8 crore, but it attracted 58,000 shareholders and was oversubscribed seven times.
Nearly half a century later, Jio's Rs 30,213-crore IPO has become India’s biggest public offering. It was fully subscribed today within two hours of opening. The scale has changed dramatically, but the Ambani family is still making a case for ordinary investors to participate in the growth of its businesses. Whether Jio can recreate Dhirubhai Ambani’s legacy, however, would depend on more than the success of a single IPO.
