NSE Secures SEBI Approval for Rs 30,000-Crore IPO, Set to Be India's Largest Ever

The National Stock Exchange of India has secured market regulator SEBI's approval to proceed with its long-delayed initial public offering, clearing a major hurdle in a listing process that has stretched on for nearly a decade and could now become the largest public issue in Indian stock market history.

What SEBI's Approval Means

According to an update filed with the exchange, NSE received SEBI's final observations on September 4, effectively a green light to move ahead with preparations for the public issue, subject to remaining regulatory requirements. NSE had filed its draft red herring prospectus in June, and receiving SEBI's observations is considered a critical procedural milestone that companies must clear before launching a public offering.

The IPO is expected to be entirely an offer for sale of roughly 14.89 crore shares, with existing shareholders collectively divesting close to 6 per cent of the exchange's stake. Among the largest selling shareholders, State Bank of India is set to offload up to 2.48 crore shares, while MS Strategic (Mauritius) Limited plans to sell around 1.60 crore shares. People familiar with the matter indicated the issue size could be in the region of Rs 30,000 crore, implying a market valuation of more than Rs 5 lakh crore for the exchange.

A Listing Nearly a Decade in the Making

NSE's path to the public markets has been unusually long and fraught. The exchange's listing ambitions were stalled for years by regulatory hurdles, most notably the co-location controversy that drew scrutiny over preferential access some brokers allegedly had to NSE's trading systems. Clearing SEBI's final observations now removes one of the last major regulatory obstacles standing between the exchange and a public listing.

If completed at the scale currently anticipated, the offering would surpass Hyundai Motor India's Rs 27,870-crore IPO from October 2024, which currently holds the record as India's largest public issue. Market watchers have been closely tracking developments around the listing given its scale and NSE's central role in India's capital markets infrastructure.

What Comes Next

Following SEBI's clearance, attention now shifts to the pricing and timeline of the issue. Market participants expect the exchange to announce a price band in the coming days, with the offering potentially opening for subscription around the middle of September and a listing targeted for later in the month, though these timelines remain subject to change as the exchange finalises its offer documents.

The scale and profile of the IPO mean it is likely to draw significant interest from both institutional and retail investors, given NSE's position as the dominant exchange for equity and derivatives trading in India. Anticipation around the listing has already been visible in related counters, with shares of companies holding stakes in NSE seeing heightened trading activity in recent sessions.

This is an original summary based on public reporting. See our editorial policy for how we source, write, and correct our stories.