MUMBAI: The National Stock Exchange of India on Wednesday filed draft papers for an initial public offering, in what will be one of two mega IPOs in the country this year alongside Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio.
NSE, India’s largest bourse and the world’s most active derivatives exchange, has been trying to list since 2016, when it first submitted IPO papers with the markets regulator that were stalled due to an ongoing regulatory enquiry. Rival exchange BSE was listed in 2017.
The exchange has an estimated valuation of $55 billion based on shares traded in the unlisted market, which would place it among India’s 10 largest companies by market capitalisation. That is comparable to the London Stock Exchange Group, valued at $58 billion.
While NSE has not detailed a timeline for its IPO, the public offer after Indian regulatory clearances would take at least three to four months.
Set up in 1992, NSE is already India’s most widely held unlisted firm with 200,909 shareholders. The proposed IPO will see shareholders offer 148.9 million equity shares or 6% of NSE’s total shares, for sale, according to the draft documents.
The Indian government earlier this year halved the minimum IPO float for large companies, allowing those valued above 5 trillion rupees ($57 billion) after listing to sell just 2.5% of their paid-up capital.
Major domestic institutions such as State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and state-owned insurance companies are selling their shares, while Singapore’s Temasek and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board are among the major foreign institutions selling shares.
With around 257 million investor accounts and 130 million unique investors, NSE has a larger retail base than global peers. Exchanges such as CME Group, Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange operate largely on an institutional model where retail traders access capital markets through large trading firms.
The exchange reported 187 billion Indian rupees ($1.98 billion) in total income and 103.02 billion rupees in net profit for the year to the end of March 2026, translating into a 53% net margin. Transaction charges contribute about 82% of revenue.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) granted NSE regulatory approval in January this year to proceed with an IPO. The public offer had been stalled by litigation with the SEBI since 2019, when the exchange was fined 11 billion rupees for failing to provide equitable access to all its trading members.
Following legal proceedings, the NSE has applied to settle charges with a fine of around $158 million, NSE’s public offer documents showed.
(Reporting by Jayshree P Upadhyay in Mumbai and Hyunsu Yim in Barcelona. Editing by Anil D’Silva and Mark Potter)
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