The shares of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) rallied more than 2.30 per cent to hit a new 52-week high amid reports it could look at unlocking value in Reliance Jio Infocomm.
The RIL share closed a ₹3,180.05, a gain of 2.32 per cent or ₹72.15 on the BSE after touching a 52-week high of ₹3,197.65.
The Sensex heavyweight had a market cap of ₹21.5 lakh crore at the close. On the NSE, it advanced 2.63 per cent to finish at ₹3,189.90.
The markets took cue from a report quoting analysts, which said RIL could be looking at an initial public offering (IPO) of the telco that could be the largest in the country.
RIL had demerged its financial services arm —Jio Financial Services — into a separate listed company a year ago.
The street is now awaiting RIL’s forthcoming annual general meeting (AGM) that could be held next month, where the attention will be on any announcement on the listing by chairman Mukesh D. Ambani.
Analysts at Jefferies said it would look out for any developments about Jio’s listing at the annual shareholders meet.
The brokerage has valued Jio at $133 billion or over ₹11 trillion.
Sebi norms stipulate companies valued at over ₹1 lakh crore must sell at least 5 per cent in the IPO. Any sale in Jio would make the IPO size around ₹55,000 crore.
Tariff hike
Jio and its two other peers had recently hiked tariffs by 11-25 per cent.
According to analysts at ICICI Securities, it was Jio which raised tariffs first, unlike in the two previous instances where Bharti Airtel had initiated the increase.
``The previous two hikes saw RJio raising prices with a delay of a few days. RJio’s tariff’s effective date used to be slightly later compared to Bharti/Vodafone Idea. In the current round it is almost concurrent with Bharti,’’ it said.
Kirtan Mehta at BOB Capital Markets raised the expected average revenue per user of Jio to ₹198 in 2024-25 and ₹225 in 2025-26.
On Thursday, telecom sector regulator Trai said Reliance Jio posted the highest adjusted gross revenue, on the basis of which the government calculates spectrum and licence fees, at ₹25,330.97 crore.
Reliance Jio’s adjusted gross revenue (AGR) grew by 10.21 per cent during the latest January-March quarter from ₹22,985 crore a year ago.
