Jio IPO a safe, long-term bet: Enam Group's Vallabh Bhanshali

"When you talk about the Jio IPO, an IPO of Rs 30,000 crore in itself seems big. But when you look at the size of the company, it is small compared to its market capitalisation," he said. Bhanshali described Jio Platforms as the realisation of a long-standing vision. "Jio Platforms is Dhirubhai Ambani's 30-year-old vision becoming a reality," he said. He also highlighted the capital expenditure already undertaken by the company ahead of its IPO.

"Jio has already done the large capex; the cash flows will now be free," Bhanshali said. "Capacity utilisation for Jio is only about 35%; there are several levers for shareholders," he added. Bhanshali said Jio had evolved into a platform company spanning telecommunications, entertainment, news and other services. Drawing a comparison with Amazon, he said Jio had brought together different businesses and capabilities, including content, technology, distribution and spectrum.

"In every aspect, you can see sophistication and cost sensitivity, along with business acumen, technological acumen and marketing acumen," he said. He also highlighted Jio's acquisitions over the past 25-30 years, including News, Saavn and Telly, as well as smaller companies acquired for their technology. "Every platform has its own characteristics, so you cannot say that every platform should have the same valuation," Bhanshali said.

Jio Platforms Ltd's Rs 8,110-crore anchor book has attracted demand of more than 30 times its size, with aggregate institutional demand touching nearly Rs 2.5 lakh crore, according to people familiar with the development. This makes it the first Indian IPO to attract demand of this magnitude. The interest spans global asset managers, sovereign wealth funds, Indian mutual fund houses, insurers and pension funds.

Investors include BlackRock, Capital Group, Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price, Schroders, JPMorgan Asset Management, Franklin Templeton, Invesco and Janus Henderson. Sovereign wealth funds that have shown interest include Singapore's GIC, Norway's Norges Bank Investment Management, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA).