The National Stock Exchange (NSE) allocated 37,793,739 equity shares at Rs 1,785 per share to anchor investors, pocketing a total of Rs 6,746.18 crore. The anchor demand, led by LIC, Government Pension Fund Global, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Fidelity, Nippon, Societe Generale and BNP Paribas, saw strong interest as more than 150 investors were allotted NSE shares in the round.
According to market sources, demand for shares in the anchor book was nearly Rs 1.2 lakh crore, which was 20 times the anchor book size. LIC, the largest shareholder at NSE currently holding 10.72% (which is larger than the offer size of NSE) participated in the anchor book through three of its entities – LIC, LIC Mutual Funds and LIC Pension Funds by investing more than Rs 500 crore.
SBI Group, which is selling a 1% stake through SBI Bank and SBI Capital in NSE, also invested in NSE through its SBI Mutual Fund, SBI General, SBI Life and SBI Pension. It invested more than Rs 400 crore in the round.
NSE Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ashishkumar Chauhan said on Tuesday that demand from anchor investors was stronger than expected. "Demand from anchor investors for NSE IPO is unexpectedly large ... because the book size has shrunk, demand is much greater. Every group like local MFs has to be allotted a specific amount,” he noted.
The NSE on Friday fixed a price band of Rs 1,700-1,785 per share for its IPO, which will open for subscription on September 17. The country’s largest stock exchange trimmed down its IPO size to Rs 22,569 crore, making it the country's second-largest public issue after Hyundai Motor India's Rs 27,870-crore offering in 2024.
The IPO, which will close on September 21, is entirely an offer for sale (OFS) of up to 12.64 crore equity shares by existing shareholders, compared with 14.9 crore shares planned earlier. The proceeds from the share sale will go entirely to the shareholders and not to NSE.
Coming to the anchor round, investors spread across geographies (the US, Europe & Asia), and categories (sovereign wealth funds, regional long-only and global mutual funds) participated in large numbers. More than 20 foreign long-only funds participated in the book with foreign portfolio investors (FPI) investing Rs 2,883 crore or 43% of the total anchor book.
Investors included large sovereign wealth funds like GIC Singapore, ADIA and Norges Bank among others, In addition to the sovereign funds, marquee names like Fidelity, GSAM, Eastspring and HSBC GAM participated in the round,
Domestic participation was well diversified with interest from varied pools of capital including Mutual Funds, Insurance companies, Pension Funds, and other institutions. More than 25 large domestic mutual funds and 11 large domestic insurance/pension companies invested around Rs 3,588 crore which is 53% of the total anchor book.
All the top MFs such as SBI Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential, HDFC MF, Nippon MF, Axis MF, Aditya Birla MF, Kotak MF, UTI MF, Mirae MF, Tata MF, Franklin Templeton MF, Edelweiss MF, HSBC MF, LIC MF, etc participated. Top 3 Insurance companies including LIC, HDFC Life, SBI Life and SBI General, and leading pension funds also contributed to the strong anchor demand.
