Jio Platforms Limited assigns ₹27,500 crore to RJIL debt

Jio Platforms Limited plans to deploy up to ₹27,500 crore of net proceeds from its fresh issue to prepay selected borrowings of its material subsidiary, RJIL, in Fiscal 2027. The identified candidate facilities had aggregate principal outstanding of ₹29,917.1 crore on June 30, 2026, and were largely used for 5G infrastructure, related capital expenditure and spectrum funding.

What will Jio Platforms use ₹27,500 crore of IPO proceeds for?

Jio Platforms will use up to ₹27,500 crore of net proceeds to prepay, in full or in part, certain outstanding RJIL borrowings during Fiscal 2027. The filing identifies this as the only quantified object of the issue, while the amount for general corporate purposes remains unspecified because the issue price and issue-related expenses had not been finalised.

Net proceeds are gross proceeds less issue-related expenses. Jio Platforms states that the allocation for general corporate purposes cannot exceed 25% of gross proceeds, and any unused amount from the ₹27,500 crore debt-prepayment allocation may be redirected to that category within the same ceiling.

Jio Platforms says the proposed repayment is intended to reduce net debt, associated servicing costs and net leverage, while improving the net asset value, or NAV, of equity shares. The stated deployment is therefore a balance-sheet measure at RJIL rather than a fixed allocation for new network construction, although the company says deleveraging could support future investments in 5G densification, fixed broadband, artificial intelligence, cloud services and enterprise digital services.

Which RJIL loans are candidates for repayment?

RJIL has identified foreign-currency external commercial borrowing, or ECB, term-loan facilities with total principal outstanding of ₹29,917.1 crore as candidates for prepayment. The facilities include United States dollar and Japanese yen loan components, and their stated purposes include 5G infrastructure development, 5G-related capital expenditure and spectrum acquisition.

The ₹27,500 crore earmark represents about 91.9% of the ₹29,917.1 crore candidate pool, so the prospectus does not commit Jio Platforms to repay every listed facility. One disclosed United States dollar facility had ₹7,099.7 crore of principal outstanding on June 30, 2026, was scheduled to mature on March 16, 2028, and was used for capital expenditure towards 5G infrastructure and spectrum acquisition.

Other disclosed facilities were documented in November 2022 and June 2023, with scheduled repayment dates in 2028 under their individual terms. Interest rates on the listed borrowings ranged from 1.40% to 5.13% per annum, while the filing notes that amounts expressed in foreign currency are subject to exchange-rate fluctuations.

How will Jio Platforms select the RJIL borrowings to prepay?

Jio Platforms will select RJIL loans using maturity, remaining tenor, borrowing cost, exchange rates, contractual conditions, prepayment terms, regulatory requirements and outstanding balances. The company can prepay facilities in full or in part, meaning the ₹27,500 crore allocation does not establish a fixed repayment amount for each named lender group.

Several facility agreements permit prepayment without premium, break cost or penalty after the delivery of a prepayment notice. Some United States dollar tranches require a minimum prepayment of US$15 million and, where applicable, further integral multiples of US$1 million; some Japanese yen tranches require at least ¥3,000 million and further integral multiples of ¥500 million.

Jio Platforms may make funds available to RJIL through equity shares, convertible or non-convertible preference shares, debentures, loans, or a combination of these instruments. The filing says the final route will depend on tax efficiency and regulatory considerations when funds are extended to RJIL, so the proposed use does not prescribe a single intra-group funding structure.

How large is the proposed prepayment relative to RJIL borrowings?

The maximum ₹27,500 crore prepayment equals about 47.1% of RJIL's ₹58,374.9 crore standalone borrowings as of June 30, 2026. This is an upper-bound comparison because Jio Platforms may make only partial prepayments and because the actual amount used for debt repayment could be below the stated maximum.

RJIL's standalone borrowings declined from ₹70,528.2 crore in Fiscal 2025 to ₹67,805.2 crore in Fiscal 2026, then to ₹58,374.9 crore at June 30, 2026. The June 2026 balance nevertheless remained above the ₹52,739.4 crore reported in Fiscal 2024, showing that the reduction from Fiscal 2025 had not returned borrowings to the earlier fiscal-year level.

The decline between Fiscal 2026 and June 30, 2026 included a ₹8,013.3 crore reduction in current borrowings, from ₹17,672 crore to ₹9,658.7 crore. Non-current borrowings declined by ₹1,417 crore over the same comparison, from ₹50,133.2 crore to ₹48,716.2 crore.

Why does RJIL's borrowing position matter to Jio Platforms?

RJIL generated 87.34% of Jio Platforms' consolidated revenue from operations for the three months ended June 30, 2026, making its funding structure material to the group. That share was lower than 88.15% in the three months ended June 30, 2025, but RJIL remained the source of more than four-fifths of consolidated revenue in both periods.

RJIL's standalone revenue from operations rose to ₹34,212.1 crore for the three months ended June 30, 2026 from ₹30,882.1 crore a year earlier. Profit after tax increased to ₹7,166.9 crore from ₹6,711 crore across the same two three-month periods, while net worth rose to ₹29,159.3 crore from ₹26,796.4 crore.

The Fiscal 2027 deployment schedule is based on Jio Platforms' current business plan, internal estimates, market conditions and commercial and technical factors. The company says interest rates, exchange rates, financing-agreement conditions and the timing of the issue could require it to revise the amount or timing of deployment, subject to applicable law.

Conclusion

Jio Platforms has made RJIL debt reduction the principal quantified use of its net fresh-issue proceeds, allocating up to ₹27,500 crore against a ₹29,917.1 crore pool of identified foreign-currency loan candidates. The allocation connects the proposed proceeds mainly to liabilities associated with RJIL's 5G infrastructure, capital expenditure and spectrum-related funding rather than committing a stated sum to fresh expansion.

The next disclosures to watch are the final net-proceeds amount, the facilities ultimately selected and the form in which Jio Platforms transfers funds to RJIL. CDSL Ratings Limited will monitor gross-proceeds utilisation quarterly until full deployment, while Jio Platforms says unutilised proceeds may be carried into subsequent periods if Fiscal 2027 deployment does not occur as planned.