The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) has filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the capital market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), to raise funds through an Initial Public Offering (IPO).
The IPO, with a face value of Rs 1, is entirely an offer-for-sale of up to 148, 905, 525 shares by State Bank of India, MS Strategic (Mauritius) Ltd, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Aranda Investments (Mauritius) Pte Ltd, Bank of Baroda, Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited, General Insurance Corporation of India Limited, The New India Assurance Company Ltd, National Insurance Limited and United India Insurance Company Limited, as per the document filed with the SEBI.
The offer is being made through the book-building process, wherein not more than 50% of the net offer is allocated to qualified institutional buyers, and not less than 15% and 35% of the net offer is assigned to non-institutional bidders and retail bidders, respectively.
As per reports, IPO size could be in the range of Rs 25,000-30,000 crore, making it one of the largest issues in India’s capital market history.
NSE, which has around 1.8 lakh shareholders, is valued at over Rs 5 lakh crore, with its shares trading in the range of Rs 1,950-2,050 in the unlisted market, according to market participants. Upon listing, NSE is expected to become one of the most valuable listed financial institutions in India.
The document shows that NSE revenue from operations was Rs 16,601 crore during FY26 as against Rs 14,780 crore during FY24. Its net profit was Rs 10,302 crore during FY26 as against Rs 8,305 crore during FY24.
A syndicate of its 20 domestic and global investment bankers, including Kotak Mahindra Capital Co. and Morgan Stanley India Co., are among the book-running lead managers for the share sale.
The filing would mark a major milestone for NSE, whose listing plans had remained on hold for nearly a decade due to regulatory issues, including the co-location controversy.
The NSE made its first attempt to list in 2016, but was advised to withdraw the plan as regulatory probes gathered pace over co-location and dark fibre cases. The listing of the exchange even reached the Delhi High Court.
While approval from Sebi’s high-powered advisory committee on settlement was earlier seen as a prerequisite for granting a no-objection certificate, the regulator issued the NoC in January this year without waiting for a formal nod from this panel.
This decision was taken amid prolonged delays and after key Sebi departments, in principle, agreed to settle the cases under the consent mechanism.
On June 20, 2025, the NSE filed a settlement application with Sebi to resolve the co-location and other related cases by agreeing to pay around Rs 1,400 crore as settlement for the co-location and dark fibre cases.
In its latest financial disclosures released in November 2025, the NSE made a provision of Rs 1,297 crore, over and above the Rs 100 crore already deposited with Sebi in compliance with a SAT order passed in 2023.
Incorporated in 1992, NSE is the largest stock exchange in India in terms of total turnover in cash market and total turnover in equity derivatives (based on notional turnover for equity options) from FY2001 to FY2026, and is also the largest stock exchange in India in terms of total turnover in exchange-traded currency derivatives (based on notional turnover of currency options) from FY2009 to FY2026, according to the Redseer report.
As per the World Federation of Exchanges, NSE also retained its position as the largest equity derivatives exchange globally with over 36.99 billion (including NSE International Exchange ("NSEIX")) contracts traded in Fiscal 2026.