NSE Hopes To Launch Its IPO By September

The National Stock Exchange (NSE), on Monday, said that it has approached markets regulator SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) for its initial public offering (IPO) and has hopes to launch the public issue by September this year, subject to approvals.

"We have approached SEBI to seek its approval for the IPO and after that we will start the process of appointing merchant bankers, who will help the exchange in filing draft prospects for the IPO," NSE MD and CEO Vikram Limaye told PTI.

He also said the exchange hopes to float the IPO by the third quarter of this calendar year.

The IPO will entirely be an offer-for-sale (OFS), wherein existing shareholders will be selling shares of NSE.

The news comes even as two state-run bankers look to sell their part of the stake in the stock exchange.

Last week, the country's largest lender, the State Bank of India (SBI), announced that it is looking to sell 50 lakh shares which represent 1.01 percent stake in the NSE as part of its capital raising exercise. In entirety, SBI currently holds 5.19 percent stake in the exchange.

According to a newspaper advertisement, public-sector lender Indian Bank also aims to sell 1 million shares in the country's largest stock exchange.

In the previous month, IFCI had sold its entire 2.44 percent stake in NSE for Rs 805.6 crore.

The NSE has revived its listing plans, which were held back following a probe by SEBI against the exchange and some of its top officials over allegations of misuse of its co-location facility and giving preferential access to certain trading members.

In April 2019, SEBI had barred the NSE from accessing the capital markets for a period of six months. It was also asked to "disgorge" more than Rs 625 crore along with 12 percent interest per annum in connection with the co-location case.

Previously, NSE had filed draft papers of IPO with SEBI in December 2016.