The Securities and Exchange Board of India issued its observation letter clearing NSE’s IPO on September 4, ending a decade-long regulatory delay.
The approval resolves a long-running dispute tied to the co-location scandal, which had repeatedly stalled the exchange’s plans to go public.
The fully offer-for-sale issue, estimated at around Rs 30,000 crore, is set to open for subscription on September 15, with a BSE listing targeted for around September 24-25.
Since exchange rules bar NSE from listing on its own platform, the exchange will debut on the rival Bombay Stock Exchange instead.
The clearance came a day after India’s Supreme Court dismissed SEBI’s appeals against NSE in cases tied to the co-location data centre and dark-fibre matters.
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
