NSE files IPO document with SEBI; mega listing plan revived after long delay
41 crore in provisions related to these two matters.
After regulatory delays of nearly ten years, the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), the country’s largest stock exchange, has filed the draft offer document with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for a mega initial public offering (IPO). NSE has been trying to list since 2016 when it first submitted IPO papers but its efforts were stalled due to an ongoing regulatory enquiry by the SEBI. The IPO is an offer-for-sale (OFS) where some of the existing shareholders will offload their stakes. While there is no clear picture about the IPO size, it could be in the region of Rs 17,000-20,000 crore, according to market estimates. However, another estimate puts the size at Rs 25,000-30,000 crore.The BSE, NSE’s rival, came out with an IPO in January 2017 and priced its shares at Rs 806 per share. BSE’s shares closed 3.81% lower at Rs 4,004 on the NSE on Wednesday. The NSE IPO, with a face value of Rs 1, is entirely an OFS of up to 14.89 crore shares by State Bank of India, MS Strategic (Mauritius) Ltd, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Aranda Investments (Mauritius) Pte Ltd, Bank of Baroda, Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd, General Insurance Corporation of India, New India Assurance Company, National Insurance and United India Insurance Company. The offer is being made through the book-building process, wherein not more than 50% of the net offer is allocated to qualified institutional buyers, and not less than 15% and 35% of the net offer is assigned to non-institutional bidders and retail bidders, respectively. NSE’s shares will be listed on the BSE. Unfair market access allegations; SEBI’s ‘in-principle’ nod The NSE first filed for IPO in 2016, but the public listing stalled following the co-location case. The exchange faced allegations that some brokers received preferential access through the co-location facility at the NSE, early login and ‘dark fiber’ — which can allow a trader a split-second advantage in executing orders. The allegations of unfair market access were first raised by a whistle-blower in January 2015. A co-location facility is the data centre facility offered by exchanges to the stock brokers. A dark fibre refers to passive optical cables that are not connected to active electronics/equipment and do not have other data flowing through them, and can therefore be used to convey data between two points.Story continues below this ad On January 15, 2026, SEBI Chairman said the regulator had, in principle, agreed to the settlement applications filed by the NSE in co-location and dark fibre matters. On June 20, 2025, the NSE had filed a settlement application with SEBI to resolve the co-location and other related cases by agreeing to pay around Rs 1,400 crore as settlement for the co-location and dark fibre cases. During the quarter ended September 30, 2025, it had set aside Rs 1,297.41 crore in provisions related to these two matters. As of March 2026, the company’s platform processed an average of 12 to 14 billion messages daily. On June 4, 2024 cumulative (across all segments) number of trades was 293.85 million that’s the highest till date at cumulative level. Its revenue from operations was Rs 16,601 crore during FY26 as against Rs 14,780 crore during FY24. Its net profit was Rs 10,302 crore during FY26 as against Rs 8,305 crore during FY24. Major planned offerings on the anvil included SBI Mutual Fund and Jio Platforms. However, many medium and large IPOs are on hold due to the market uncertainty. Around Rs 1.40 lakh crore worth of IPOs are awaiting regulatory approval, while another Rs 1.25 lakh crore has already been cleared but is waiting for the right market conditions.
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