The shares of Jio Financial Services will list on Monday at the bourses, amid expectations from the investing community that it could garner a decent premium over its pre-listing price of Rs 261.
“The listing price can be higher. There is lot of enthusiasm about the stock and high optimism regarding its growth potential,” V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist, Geojit Financial Services said.
The listing of the entity will come days after its demerger from parent Reliance Industries. Every shareholder holding a Reliance Industries share as on July 20 will get a Jio Financial Services share in the ratio of 1:1.
FTSE, which had announced its plans to remove the stock on Thursday, said on Friday that it has withdrawn the decision. Jio Financial will now be a part of the FTSE All-World Index. It will also be added to MSCI Global Standard Index on August 23.
As a part of the special discovery session held on July 20, the stock’s pre-listing price was set at Rs 261.85 per share. But, analysts expect the stock is expected to list at a premium to the discovered price.
“It could list at Rs 350-levels. Investor interest has been strong, thanks to the company being well-funded and given the scope for cross-selling,” the head of research at a brokerage said on condition of anonymity.
With a market capitalisation of nearly Rs 1.7 trillion, Jio Financial Services will take Cholamandalam Investment and Finance’s place as the second largest non-banking financial company (NBFC) in India.
Currently, Bajaj Finance is the largest NBFC in India with a market capitalisation of nearly Rs 4.2 trillion.
The net profit of Jio Financial Services, formerly known Reliance Strategic Investments fell to Rs 31.25 crore in 2022-23(April-March) from Rs 168.04 crore in 2021-22. Similarly, interest income fell to Rs 38.34 crore in 2022-23 from Rs 148.09 crore a year ago.
Nevertheless, analysts feel that the company has a significant potential for growth given the wide reach that it can attain through the parent’s other business segments like Reliance Retail.
In addition to this, the company plans to expand into insurance and asset management services too, which will hold it in good stead.
On July 26, Jio Financial Services and BlackRock agreed to form a joint venture to enter India’s asset management industry.
“Investor expectation is high because of the potential. This could lead to an initial premium, after which it could stabilise owing to profit-booking, due to technical reasons and valuation concerns in the near term,” Deepak Jasani, head of retail research, HDFC Securities.
But, he added that there will be some selling pressure as far as index funds are concerned.