Mumbai, Sept 5:
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has received the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi) final observations for its much-awaited initial public offering (IPO), clearing a key regulatory hurdle for what could become one of the largest public issues in the history of the Indian stock market.
According to an update with Sebi, the regulator issued its final observations to NSE on September 4. The exchange had filed its draft IPO papers with Sebi in June, setting the process in motion for a public listing that has been awaited for nearly a decade.
The receipt of Sebi’s observations is an important step in the IPO process and allows NSE to proceed with preparations for the proposed issue, subject to applicable regulatory requirements. The exchange’s listing plans had remained stalled for years amid regulatory issues, including those surrounding the co-location controversy.
According to NSE’s draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), the proposed IPO will be entirely an offer for sale (OFS). As part of the issue, existing shareholders are expected to sell 14.89 crore shares, representing nearly 6 per cent of the exchange.
Since the issue is an OFS, the proceeds from the share sale will go to the existing shareholders offering their stakes rather than to NSE as fresh capital.
State Bank of India is among the largest shareholders participating in the proposed offer and is expected to offload up to 2.48 crore shares. MS Strategic (Mauritius) Limited is another major selling shareholder, with plans to sell up to 1.60 crore shares.
People familiar with the matter have indicated that the size of the NSE IPO could be around Rs 30,000 crore. At that valuation, the exchange could command a market capitalisation of more than Rs 5 lakh crore.
If completed at that scale, the NSE offering would become a landmark transaction for India’s capital markets and one of the biggest IPOs ever launched in the country.
The proposed issue could also overtake the previous record held by Hyundai Motor India, which raised Rs 27,870 crore through its IPO in October 2024.
NSE’s proposed listing has been closely watched by investors and the financial markets, given the exchange’s position in India’s capital-market ecosystem.
Plans for an NSE IPO had been delayed for years because of regulatory and governance-related issues, most notably the co-location matter. The receipt of Sebi’s final observations now marks a significant development in the exchange’s long-running effort to become a publicly listed company.