NSE Files Draft Papers for ₹30,000-crore Initial Public Offering
The National Stock Exchange (NSE), India's largest stock exchange, has filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for an initial public offering (IPO). This listing on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has been in the making for nearly a decade, delayed by regulatory hurdles including the co-location controversy.
The proposed IPO is entirely an offer for sale (OFS) by existing shareholders, with no fresh issue of shares. The issue size is estimated at around ₹30,000 crore, which would make it one of the largest in India's capital market history. According to the draft papers, selling shareholders will offload 14.89 crore equity shares.
State Bank of India (SBI) is the largest seller, proposing to divest 2.4 crore shares. Other major sellers include MS Strategic (Mauritius) Ltd, a special-purpose vehicle of Morgan Stanley (1.6 crore shares), Bank of Baroda (1.09 crore shares), and Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd (1.09 crore shares). Public sector insurers — New India Assurance, General Insurance Corporation of India and National Insurance Company — will collectively sell over 3.3 crore shares. SBI holds a 3.23% stake in NSE, while its subsidiary SBI Capital Markets holds 4.33%.
NSE has approximately 1.8 lakh shareholders. The IPO size implies a market capitalisation of over ₹5 lakh crore. This issue is set to surpass the previous record of Hyundai Motor India's ₹27,870 crore IPO launched in October 2024.
The filing comes after NSE's board approved the IPO on February 6, 2025, following receipt of Sebi's no-objection certificate (NOC). NSE had initially filed draft papers in 2016 for a ₹10,000 crore OFS, but Sebi withheld approval amid concerns over governance lapses and the co-location case, where certain brokers allegedly received preferential access to the exchange's trading systems.
Since then, NSE has implemented various governance and compliance measures. In January 2025, Sebi Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey confirmed that the regulator had granted in-principle approval to NSE's settlement application in the co-location case. NSE filed the settlement application in June 2025, offering to pay ₹1,388 crore to resolve the matter and proceed with its listing plans.
For the IPO, NSE has appointed 20 merchant bankers, along with legal advisors and other intermediaries.
On the financial front, NSE reported a profit after tax (PAT) of ₹10,302 crore for the fiscal year 2025-26 (FY26), a decline of 15% from ₹12,188 crore in FY25. Total income stood at ₹18,713 crore, marginally lower than ₹19,177 crore in the previous fiscal. However, in the March quarter of FY26, PAT rose 8% to ₹2,871 crore compared to ₹2,650 crore in the same quarter a year ago, while total income increased 22% to ₹5,360 crore from ₹4,397 crore.
