Jio Financial, a Reliance spin-off valued above estimates at $20B

After its stock price was set at a higher-than-expected rate of 261.85 rupees ($3.19), Jio Financial Services (JFS) was valued at nearly $20 billion.

JFS’ demerger from Reliance Industries, which was announced last October, is seen as the Indian oil-to-retail conglomerate’s way of expanding in the lucrative financial services sector, especially as Reliance Industries already possesses a non-bank financial company license.

Jio Financial, at a $20 billion valuation, would be one of India’s top 40 companies by market capitalization. Reliance Industries finds itself at the top of the list, valued at $233 billion.

On Thursday, for the first time, the main stock exchanges of India held a special hour-long “pre-open call auction” trading session for Reliance to set JFS’ share price.

The per unit stock price was set at 261.85 rupees, or the difference between Reliance’s closing price on Wednesday of 2841.85 rupees and its price at the end of the special session of 2,580 rupees.

JFS’s stock price exceeded analysts’ estimates of 160-190 rupees. For every Reliance share held by stockholders, they will receive one JFS share.

The founder and head of research at Equinomics, G. Chokkalingam, said that this showed people were quite confident about the future performance of JFS with exposure to Jio’s mobile customer base. JFS also held nearly 1 trillion rupees of Reliance’s treasury shares. Chokkalingam added that these factors have given investors a lot of confidence in JFS.

Included in major Indian indices, including the benchmark Nifty 50, JFS however will not trade until it is listed on the stock exchanges, the date for which Reliance will look to set at its upcoming annual general meeting.