NSE’s roughly Rs 30,000 crore IPO has been cleared by SEBI after a wait of nearly a decade, with the observation letter issued on September 4.
The delay was tied to the co-location scandal, a long-running dispute that repeatedly held up the exchange’s plans to go public.
The offer-for-sale issue is scheduled to open for subscription on September 15, with a BSE listing targeted for around September 24-25.
NSE will list on the BSE rather than its own platform, since exchange rules bar it from trading on itself.
The clearance came a day after the Supreme Court dismissed SEBI’s appeals against NSE in the co-location data centre and dark-fibre cases on September 3.
The approval clears a decade-long regulatory fight tied to the co-location scandal, which had repeatedly delayed the exchange’s plans to go public.
NSE eventually settled with SEBI, paying roughly Rs 1,491 crore, about $155 million, to resolve the matter and clear the path for the IPO.
India’s Supreme Court dismissed SEBI’s appeals against NSE in cases tied to the co-location data centre and dark-fibre matters on September 3, removing a major hurdle just a day before the observation letter was issued.
The fully offer-for-sale issue is set to open for subscription on September 15, with a listing on the BSE targeted for around September 24-25.
Because exchange regulations prevent NSE from listing on its own trading platform, the exchange will debut on the rival Bombay Stock Exchange instead.
The IPO involves an offer of approximately 149 million equity shares, with the overall issue size estimated at around Rs 30,000 crore.
Life Insurance Corporation of India is expected to retain its stake in NSE through the listing, even as several other existing shareholders use the offering to cash out.
The IPO is set to rank among the largest public offerings in Indian stock market history once it completes, given the scale of the offer and NSE’s dominant position in domestic exchange trading.
Photo of the NSE building, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
