“We should actually work out a solution for the IPO to get launched. We will apply our mind on that matter and subject to satisfactory resolution we should be able to see it through. The intent will be to see it through,” Pandey said.
Speaking to ET Now, Pandey said that there were mainly four issues that needed resolution viz. governance, technology, clearing corporation and ongoing litigations.
NSE’s IPO is perhaps one of the most anticipated public issues and India’s largest exchange has long been trying to list itself on the BSE but has been unable to do so because of regulatory hurdles.
The National Stock Exchange had earlier said it wants to launch its IPO, which could beat Hyundai’s record of largest public issue, not for price discovery of its shares but for the sake of transparency and accountability.
“The IPO will increase transparency and accountability. We are valued at around Rs 4.75 lakh crore in the unlisted market and as India’s largest exchange we should be accountable to the market,” Sriram Krishnan, Chief Business Development Officer, NSE, had then told reporters in New Delhi. He said the IPO is not about price discovery as the bourse doesn’t have a promoter. “We are a quasi-commercial organization,” Krishnan had said.In April last year, MD and CEO Ashish Chauhan had said that NSE was ready to begin its IPO process but is waiting for a Sebi nod.
The size of the IPO is expected to be Rs 30,000 crore if the exchange decides to sell 10% of its equity in the issue. Life Insurance Corporation’s Rs 21,008 crore issue in May 2022 is the largest IPO in India, followed by Paytm’s Rs 18,300 crore in November 2021.
The exchange initially filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) in 2016, but Sebi returned it in 2019, instructing the exchange to refile after resolving the colocation investigation.
In September, the capital markets regulator disposed of the case against the leading stock exchange and its officials Ravi Narain, Chitra Ramakrishna and others in the co-location case citing absence of sufficient material evidence.
Following this, NSE and its former chief executive Vikram Limaye and eight others settled a case of misuse of the trading access point (TAP) system by certain brokers with market regulator Sebi by paying Rs 643 crore.
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