Jio Financial Services To List On Stock Exchanges On August 21; RIL Shares Rally

The most-awaited listing is just around the corner! The share price of Jio Financial Services (JFSL) is set to debut on stock exchanges on August 21. The NBFC recently got demerged from the largest company in India in terms of market share, Reliance Industries. This also comes a day before FTSE Russell announced the deletion of Jio Financial Services indices.

At the time of writing, heavyweight RIL shares traded at Rs 2566.30 apiece, up by Rs 28.55 or 1.13% on BSE. The stock was near its intraday high of Rs 2577 apiece. Currently, RIL is the most valued firm with a market cap of more than Rs 17.36 lakh crore at the current trading price levels.

Last week, the shares of JFSL were credited to the demat accounts of eligible shareholders of RIL in the ratio of 1:1.

BSE notified on August 18 that "Trading members of the exchange are hereby informed that effective from Monday, August 21, 2023, the equity shares of Jio Financial Services Ltd (Formerly known as Reliance Strategic Investments Limited) shall be listed and admitted to dealings on the Exchange in the list of T Group of Securities."

Further, the scrip will be in the Trade-for-Trade segment for 10 trading days.

As per the Economic Times report, the JFSL share's pre-listing price comes to around Rs 261.85 per share --- which is at a premium than compared to RIL's Rs 133 per share cost of acquisition. Also, the company's market cap is likely to be approximately Rs 1.66 lakh crore, making it the second largest NBFC in the country after Bajaj Finance which holds a market cap is over Rs 4.18 lakh crore.

JFSL's listing date was notified right after, FTSE Russell on Thursday said, "about the demerger of Jio Financial Services (India, constituent) from Reliance Industries (India, constituent), since Jio Financial Services did not commence trading after 20 business days and no firm trading date has been announced."

Hence, FTSE stated that the JFSL will be deleted from its various indexes with effect from August 22, 2023. Whether FTSE will change its plan on dropping JFSL after the listing date on Indian stock exchanges, will be keenly watched.

RIL demerged its financial services business into JFSL to focus on digital delivery of financial products to democratize financial services access for 1.4 billion Indians. JFSL to launch consumer and merchant lending business based on proprietary data analytics to complement and supplement the traditional credit bureau-based underwriting. JFS will continue to evaluate organic growth, joint-venture partnerships as well as inorganic opportunities in insurance, asset management and digital broking segments.

In the annual report FY23, RIL's chief Mukesh Ambani said, "Jio Financial Services Limited along with its subsidiaries will leverage the technological capabilities of Reliance and digitally deliver financial services, democratising access to financial services offerings for Indian citizens. Jio Financial Services aims to provide simple, affordable and innovative digital-first solutions."

The richest man of India added, "Jio Financial Services Limited is positioned uniquely to capture the growth opportunities in the financial services sector and play a crucial role in transforming the landscape of digital finance in India."