The National Stock Exchange (NSE) is expected to slash its initial public offering (IPO) size to around Rs 23,000 crore from the earlier estimated size of Rs 30,000 crore as key shareholders have reportedly lowered their offer size in anticipation of a better price post-listing. As per sources, the offer size has been reduced to around 12.4 crore shares from 14.89 crore proposed earlier, representing around 5.2% of NSE’s equity, compared with 6% earlier.
Sources stated that the State Bank of India (SBI), the largest selling shareholder, has reduced its proposed sale to 1.597 crore shares from 2.475 crore. SBI Capital Markets will sell 87.8 lakh shares, but this represents a transfer of part of the SBI group’s earlier allocation and does not increase the overall offer.
MS Strategic (Mauritius) has also slashed its proposed sale from 1.6 crore shares to 1.1 crore shares, while Bank of Baroda has cut its offer from 1.09 crore shares to 76.9 lakh. Other stakeholders such as Stock Holding Corporation of India, General Insurance Corporation of India, National Insurance Company, Indian Bank, and Mahagony are also reducing their OFS size.
NSE is expected to file the Red Herring Prospectus (RHP) with the market regulator Sebi by Thursday night. The price band for its IPO is expected to be in the range of Rs 1,700 to Rs 1,785 apiece. In the unlisted market, the exchange’s shares were trading at around Rs 2,000 apiece.
Sources had earlier stated that the IPO will open for public subscription on September 18 and close on September 22. The shares are likely to be listed on September 25.
Last week, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had approved the long-awaited IPO of NSE. NSE filed draft papers with SEBI in June this year for a gargantuan public offering pegged at roughly Rs 30,000 crore. The country’s largest stock exchange, 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.
Now that the IPO is expected to be around Rs 23,000 crore, it won’t surpass the Rs 27,870 crore record initial share sale of Hyundai Motor India. Market participants expect billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Platforms Ltd to float a share sale that could raise around $4 billion (approximately Rs 37,700 crore).
