Reliance Industries has been working towards listing Jio Platforms, the digital and telecom arm of oil-to-retail conglomerate, Reliance Industries, on the stock market.
But, the process has hit a speed bump, and the reason is a rule change that has been approved in principle but not yet made official by the government, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Under current rules, any company launching an IPO must sell at least 5% of its shares to the public. Reliance, however, wants to sell only about 2.5% of Jio, half the required minimum.
2 March 2026
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If everything falls into place, the Jio IPO could raise more than $4 billion, making it one of the largest public offerings in Indian history. Given the enormous size, even 2.5% would translate into a massive fundraise, but the rules as they stand do not permit it.
India's market regulator SEBI anticipated this issue and approved an amendment in September that would allow very large companies, those valued at more than $55 billion after listing, to sell as little as 2.5% in an IPO.
Jio comfortably qualifies for this relaxation, with investment bankers reportedly valuing the company at as much as $170 billion.
However, SEBI's approval alone is not enough. The rule change still needs to be formally notified by the central government before it becomes law, and that notification is yet to come.
Reliance is reportedly waiting for the government to formally gazette the rule change before it can take the next steps of appointing bankers officially and filing a draft IPO prospectus with SEBI.
According to the report, the company is aiming to file that draft prospectus before April, though that timeline depends entirely on how quickly the government acts.
American investment banking giants Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are set to lead the IPO, according to an earlier report by Economic Times. Reliance, for its part, has maintained publicly that it is still awaiting regulatory clarity before formally kicking off the listing process.
Meanwhile, the April-timeline contradicts Mukesh Ambani's statement from August 2025, when he said that Reliance intended to list Jio in the first half of 2026.
That window is still technically open, but it is narrowing. The longer the government takes to notify the rule change, the tighter the timeline gets.
