Ambani plans to take Jio to market by early 2019

New Delhi: Mukesh Ambani is  looking for an initial public offering (IPO) of mobile operator Reliance Jio Infocomm, after spending $31 billion on its roll out.

Reliance Industries is holding internal discussions about preparing to list Jio as soon as late 2018 or early 2019, said an agency report on Tuesday quoting sources.

The report said that Jio is targeting to improve its financial performance before the IPO.

These discussion on Jio listing are at an early stage, and there’s no certainty they will lead to a transaction.

Jio has accumulated more than 138.6 million subscribers, making it the fourth-largest operator at the end of September.

Jio, which is wholly-owned by Reliance Industries, launched a free-for-life call service last year to capture the market share

India’s telcos are still burning cash amid a brutal competition for market share.

Mr Ambani’s aggressive strategy to capture market share has led to rivals consolidating.

Bharti Airtel this year agreed to absorb Tata Group’s mobile-phone business, while Vodafone Group Plc and Idea Cellular  announced they would merge their local operations to create the nation’s largest wireless operator.

Rating agency S&P in its report in August had said that it expects a consolidation in the Indian telecom sector, with the top-three telco’s eventually controlling 75 per cent to 85 per cent of industry revenues.

“It could however take another 12-24 months until the dust settles, which means that margins and cash positions will be further challenged before they get better,” it had said.

Jio reported a net loss of $42 million in the quarter ended September 30, though the business made a profit before interest and taxes over the period.