Inside Reliance Jio's IPO: The lawyers steering India's biggest listing

Jio Platforms Limited’s proposed initial public offering (IPO), which could become India’s largest public issue, has brought in Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Khaitan & Co, Latham & Watkins LLP and White & Case LLP as legal advisors.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co is acting as lead legal counsel to Jio Platforms as to Indian law.

Prashant Gupta, Partner and National Practice Head, Capital Markets at SAM, provided strategic inputs on the transaction.

The transaction is being led by Nikhil Naredi, Partner, along with Chinmay Sethia, Principal Associate; Tarun Srikanth, Principal Associate; Shruthi Hariharan, Senior Associate; and Sridutt Mishra, Senior Associate.

The team also included Associates Ankita Singh, Najeeb Din, Aryan Singh, Soundarya M, Dhanashree Singe, Avani Sharda, Gayathri Krishnan and Anshika Tyagi.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas is also advising Jio Platforms as Indian legal counsel.

L Viswanathan, Senior Partner; Yash J Ashar, Senior Partner; and Manan Lahoty, Partner and Head, Capital Markets, provided guidance on the transaction.

The Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas team was led by Devaki Mankad, Partner and Regional Co-Head, Capital Markets, West.

The team also included Principal Associates Rushab Dhandokia, Jhalak Shah, Tanushri More and Akash Joshi; Senior Associates Raksha Raina, Urmil Shah, Sakshi Sharma and Anuj Gupta; and Associates Hitesh Nagpal, Archit Jain, Aniruddh Saraswat, Arikta Shetty, Anomitra Debnath, Divyanshu Singh, Akshat Sharma, Alok Antony, Mann Agrawal and Mitali Mangalam.

Khaitan & Co advised the book running lead managers on the IPO.

The Khaitan team was led by Sudhir Bassi, Executive Director; Aditya George Cheriyan, Partner; and Priya Awasthi, Partner.

The core team also included Tishita Mukherjee (Principal Associate), Anshul Mordia (Senior Associate), Hrithik Khurana (Senior Associate), Ira Pandya (Senior Associate), Aayush Virani (Senior Associate), Associates Nibha Yadav, Ria Chaudhary, Vanshika Singh, Aayushi Poddar, Aryan Agarwal, Avantika Tanwar, Hrishi Kapadia and Mehar Sharma.

The book running lead managers include: Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Limited, Morgan Stanley India Company Private Limited, BofA Securities India Limited, Axis Capital Limited, BNP Paribas, Citigroup Global Markets India Private Limited, CLSA India Private Limited, DAM Capital Advisors Limited, Goldman Sachs (India) Securities Private Limited, HDFC Bank Limited, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India) Private Limited, ICICI Securities Limited, IIFL Capital Services Limited, Jefferies India Private Limited, JM Financial Limited, J.P. Morgan India Private Limited, SBI Capital Markets Limited, UBS Securities India Private Limited and 360 ONE WAM Limited.

Latham & Watkins LLP is acting as international legal counsel to Jio Platforms.

The transaction was led by Rajiv Gupta (Partner), with Esha Goel (Counsel) and Helan Sun (Associate).

Advice was provided on tax matters by Enrique Rene de Vera (Partner), with Claire Park (Associate); and on US regulatory matters by Thomas Lane (Counsel), with Matthew Gregory (Associate).

White & Case LLP is advising the book running lead managers on the proposed Rule 144A and Regulation S IPO.

The White & Case team is led by partners Rahul Guptan in London and Kaya Proudian in Singapore.

The team also includes partner Steven Gee in New York, local partner James Hsiao in Hong Kong, counsel Royston Tan in Hong Kong and associates Tarang Nagar, Ji Yang Lim, Daniel Park, Hassan Said and Yuning Zhou.

The DRHP also discloses that Rajagopal Venkatakrishnan was appointed General Counsel of Jio Platforms on June 1, 2026.

Venkatakrishnan, has been associated with the Reliance Group since 2015 and has more than three decades of experience

According to the DRHP, Khaitan & Co Managing Partner Haigreve Khaitan and AZB & Partners Co-founder and Managing Partner Zia Jaydev Mody are independent directors on the board of Jio Platforms.

During Covid of 2020, Jio Platforms was busy in the fund raising mode by raising 1,52,056 crore within a span of 6 months. Facebook, Google, Qualcomm, Intel and some Private Equity Majors such as KKR, ADIA, TPG and SilverLake and others invested.

14 deals were stuck between April and July 2020. In most of the 14 Deals, AZB and Davis Polk were the lead lawyers for Reliance Jio.

The IPO is a fresh issue of up to 270 million equity shares of face value ₹10 each. While the DRHP does not disclose the price band or final issue size, Reuters has reported that Jio Platforms is looking to raise around $3.8 billion through the IPO, which could make it India’s largest public issue.