The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) are very close to settling issues and legal cases that were hindering the initial public offering (IPO) of the exchange, according to SEBI chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey.
Speaking at the FE CFO Awards, he said, “There is no obstacle remaining in the case of the NSE.” He added that the exchange and the markets regulator are settling some of the key issues. “There is some legal settlements and other things. Some amount will have to be paid and those cases would have to be withdrawn, and so on.”
Pandey clarified that the demerger of clearing corporations before the NSE IPO is not an issue. There are various models – some clearing corporations exist as separate companies, others are subsidiaries of exchanges, while in the US, brokers own them, Pandey said.
According to sources close to the development, SEBI and the NSE have arrived at a final settlement amount. “This box has been ticked and most others are in the process of being finalised. If they get the no-objection certificate (NoC), NSE could look at an IPO by December or even before,” one of the sources said.
Earlier, reports suggested that the amount of Rs 1,000 crore had been arrived at for settlement.
NSE’s plans for an IPO has gathered traction since it settled its co-location case in October. After Pandey took charge as the SEBI chairman, the exchange has been actively pursuing this. In May, it had applied for the NoC.
It had filed its draft red herring prospectus for the first time in 2016. However, SEBI returned it in 2019 and asked the exchange to resolve the governance issues in the co-location case before applying again.
The co-location case is related to alleged preferential access provided to some brokers before others, therefore giving them an unfair advantage. There were also concerns over its technology infrastructure after glitches were observed.
NSE’s weighted share price in the unlisted market is Rs 1,342. It has market capitalisation of Rs 3.32 lakh crore. The number of shareholders in the exchange has zoomed from less than 40,000 to over a lakh – the largest number amid unlisted firms – between March-end and at present.
The exchange’s consolidated profit after tax climbed 7% year-on-year to Rs 2,650 crore in the March quarter. The total income fell 13% YoY to Rs 4,397 crore in Q4FY25.
For the full year ended March 2025, NSE’s net profit jumped 47% to Rs 12,188 crore and total income rose 17% to Rs 19,177 crore.