Asia's richest man Ambani announces what could be India's biggest share sale

Jio Platforms, the telecom unit of billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries, has announced what analysts say could be one of India's biggest share sales.The company's board has approved a draft prospectus for the Initial Public Offering (IPO), Ambani said at Reliance's annual shareholder meeting on Friday. India's largest telecom operator, which has more than 500 million subscribers, is expected to raise around $4bn (£3.02bn), according to media reports. Investors will be watching the listing closely as a test of appetite for new offerings after months of volatility in the country's stock markets."The proposed listing of Jio will demonstrate to the world that India can build technology companies of global scale, global capability, and global value," Ambani, one of the world's richest men, said.Launched in 2016, Jio shook up India's telecom sector with low-cost mobile data plans, soon racking up millions of users. The company has since expanded into areas including Cloud Computing, enterprise services and Artificial Intelligence.Last year, Jio and rival Bharti Airtel signed separate deals with Elon Musk's SpaceX to bring the Starlink internet service to India.The IPO comes after a year-long wait for Jio to go public. Last year, Ambani had said the company would be listed in the first half of 2026.