The $2.3 billion initial public offering of the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) was subscribed 5.7 times by the end of the final day of bidding on Monday, as investors placed bids for more than five times the shares on offer.The IPO, India’s second-largest public issue, received bids for 502.69 million shares against 88.64 million shares on offer as of 5:02 pm, exchange data cited by Reuters showed.Including anchor investments, the total value of bids stood at Rs 96,476 crore ($10.07 billion) at the upper end of the IPO’s price band of Rs 1,700-1,785 per share.The final amount could change as bid details were due to be updated until 7 pm.NSE shares are scheduled to begin trading on Thursday, September 24, marking the culmination of a decade-long effort by India’s biggest stock exchange operator to enter the public markets.
Strong institutional demand
The IPO had received 3.92 times subscription by 2:35 pm, according to BSE data.At that stage, the portion reserved for qualified institutional buyers was subscribed 7.99 times, while the non-institutional investor category was subscribed 5.07 times.The retail portion was subscribed 1.13 times.NSE had raised Rs 6,746 crore from anchor investors on Wednesday last week. The anchor book included state-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India, Goldman Sachs and Fidelity, along with sovereign wealth funds such as GIC Singapore, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Norges Bank.Eastspring and HSBC Global Asset Management also participated in the anchor round, PTI reported.
Second-largest Indian IPO
The NSE offering is worth Rs 22,569 crore and ranks as India’s second-largest public issue after Hyundai Motor India’s Rs 27,870-crore IPO in 2024. It has surpassed Life Insurance Corporation of India’s Rs 21,000-crore issue in 2022.The IPO comprises an offer for sale of up to 12.64 crore equity shares by existing shareholders. Since it is entirely an OFS, the proceeds from the share sale will go to the existing shareholders rather than the NSE.At the upper end of the Rs 1,700-1,785 price band, the exchange will command a valuation of up to Rs 4.42 lakh crore.The size of the OFS was reduced from an earlier plan to sell 14.9 crore shares, bringing down the overall issue size from an initial estimate of around Rs 30,000 crore.
Decade-long listing effort
The public issue marks a major step in the NSE’s long-running effort to list its shares.Its listing plans had remained stalled for nearly a decade amid regulatory hurdles, including those linked to the co-location controversy.The shares are now expected to make their market debut on September 24.