As Jio Platforms moves closer to what could become one of India’s largest stock market debuts, a little-known telecom entrepreneur is poised to emerge as one of the biggest winners from the listing.
Mahendra Nahata, the founder of telecom equipment maker HFCL and a key figure in Reliance’s entry into the telecom sector more than a decade ago, could see an investment of just ₹48 crore balloon into nearly ₹5,800 crore when Jio Platforms goes public.
According to a valuation by Motilal Oswal, which estimates Jio Platforms’ worth at around $114 billion, Nahata’s 0.54% stake in the company is currently valued at approximately $611 million, or about ₹5,800 crore. The gain represents more than a 100-fold return on an investment made only six years ago.
The spotlight on Nahata’s holding comes after Jio Platforms, incorporated on November 15, 2019, filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) for an initial public offering. The company plans to issue 270 million new shares, which will marginally reduce Reliance Industries’ ownership from 66.43% to 64.5%. The conglomerate has not yet disclosed the issue price or the total amount it intends to raise.
The roots of Nahata’s remarkable windfall lie in a transaction that predates Jio’s launch by several years.
On June 11, 2010, Infotel Broadband Services won pan-India broadband wireless spectrum in a government auction for ₹12,872 crore. Within hours of the victory, Reliance Industries acquired a 95% stake in the company for ₹4,800 crore, while Nahata retained the remaining 5%. Reliance subsequently funded the spectrum payments, laying the foundation for what would eventually become Reliance Jio.
Over the following years, Reliance poured billions of dollars into building its telecom business. Infotel Broadband was renamed Reliance Jio Infocomm in 2013, and Reliance steadily increased its ownership stake from 95% to 99.44% by March 2018. Throughout this period, Nahata did not contribute additional capital, and his shareholding gradually diluted to below 0.5%.
A major restructuring in 2019 changed the picture. Reliance created Jio Platforms as the parent company for its digital and telecom businesses, with Jio Infocomm becoming a subsidiary. Around this time, Nahata received financial instruments that would later be converted into equity in Jio Platforms, creating a direct connection between his early investment in Infotel and his present-day stake in the digital giant.
The decisive moment came on July 7, 2020, roughly eight months after Jio Platforms was incorporated. According to the company’s DRHP, members of the Nahata family, including his son and daughter, acquired 37.04 million shares, equivalent to a 0.414% stake, by converting compulsorily convertible debentures at ₹10 per share.
On the same day, Reliance issued an additional 10.83 million shares, representing 0.121% of Jio Platforms, to the Nahata family. This increased their ownership to approximately 0.536%, effectively the 0.54% stake they hold today.
The timing of the allotment was significant. It coincided with the first tranche of shares being issued to Meta, marking the beginning of a global investment rush into Jio Platforms. Over the following months, 13 major investors, including Meta, Google, sovereign wealth funds and private equity firms, collectively invested ₹1,52,056 crore to acquire roughly one-third of the company.
Meta purchased shares at ₹488.34 apiece, while several other investors paid ₹549.31 per share, according to the DRHP. Despite the upcoming public issue, no existing investor, including Nahata, has indicated plans to sell shares as part of the IPO.
Nahata declined to comment on the value of his holding, directing questions to Jio Platforms. An email sent to the company reportedly went unanswered.
While the potential windfall has renewed interest in Nahata’s business career, his journey has been anything but straightforward.
In 1987, he founded Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd. (HFCL), which grew alongside India’s telecom expansion during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The company became one of the country’s prominent telecom equipment manufacturers as India expanded its landline infrastructure.
However, HFCL and Nahata occasionally found themselves at the centre of controversy. During the mid-1990s, the company was linked to former telecom minister Sukh Ram in a controversy surrounding the award of a basic telephony licence. Although Sukh Ram was later convicted and sentenced to five years in prison, neither HFCL nor Nahata was found guilty.
The company also surfaced during investigations into stockbroker Ketan Parekh’s alleged stock market manipulation scheme in the late 1990s, which involved shares of several companies, including HFCL. In 2010, HFCL settled proceedings with market regulator SEBI by paying ₹10 crore without admitting wrongdoing.
In another episode, a 2015 report by the Comptroller and Auditor General criticised the Department of Telecommunications’ handling of broadband wireless spectrum auctions. The report argued that confidentiality safeguards should have been stronger and noted that auction participants were not expected to discuss their participation publicly. Reliance’s acquisition of Infotel only hours after its auction victory attracted attention during that review.
Despite those challenges, HFCL remains a significant player in India’s telecom ecosystem. For the financial year ended March 2026, the company reported revenue of ₹4,950 crore and a profit of ₹329.5 crore.
Today, as Jio Platforms prepares to enter the public markets, Nahata’s long association with Reliance’s telecom ambitions appears set to deliver one of the most remarkable investment returns in recent Indian corporate history. What began as a strategic position in a little-known broadband company has evolved into a stake in India’s largest digital and telecom platform—one now valued at thousands of crores and still growing.
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