For years, the Indian market has been anticipating for a public debut of Reliance Retail and Jio Platforms. But in a surprise move late last year, Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man and chairman of conglomerate Reliance Industries, put together a different offering — a little known non-bank financial subsidiary — for the market.
That demerged offering, Jio Financial Services, made its public debut on Monday, listing at 262 Indian rupees ($3.15) per share, the price set last month in a special session by local exchanges. But on Monday, the market didn’t buy that price.
Within minutes of trading, the share fell at 248.9 Indian rupees and hit the lower circuit on the local exchanges (prompting the exchanges to halt trading), pushing Jio Financial Services’ market cap to $19.2 billion. At that valuation, the unit is already one of the large...
