The Rs 22,568.94-crore IPO of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), India’s second-largest public issue, was subscribed 5.71 times on the final day of bidding, thus becoming the most subscribed among the country’s five largest IPOs. The issue received bids for 50.58 crore shares against 8.86 crore shares on offer, according to exchange data.
Hyundai Motor India’s Rs 27,870-crore IPO in 2024, the country’s largest public issue, was subscribed 1.93 times while Life Insurance Corporation of India’s (LIC) Rs 20,557-crore IPO in 2022 was subscribed 2.05 times. Paytm’s Rs 18,300-crore IPO in 2021 was subscribed 1.48 times while Tata Capital’s Rs 15,512-crore issue in 2025 was subscribed 1.65 times.
Demand for NSE’s initial share sale was led by Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) with their quota subscribed 12.68 times, followed by non-institutional investors (booked 6.55x). Retail investors showed minimal interest in having a stake in the country’s largest stock exchange as their allotted quota was booked just 1.39 times. The portion set for employees was booked 2.40 times.
The encouraging response is primarily attributed to NSE's dominant position in India’s capital market, strong balance sheet and ‘subscribe’ rating by brokerage firms. NSE is expected to hit the exchanges later this week.
NSE’s revenue from operations stood at Rs 16,601.31 crore in FY26, down from Rs 17,140.68 crore in FY25 but higher than Rs 14,780.01 crore in FY24. Ebitda declined to Rs 11,097.90 crore from Rs 12,646.88 crore, while profit after tax fell to Rs 10,302.06 crore from Rs 12,187.69 crore in FY25, though both remained above FY24 levels. The fall in PAT is attributed to one-time settlement costs.
Choice Equity Broking in a note said that the issue is priced at 47.3x TTM earnings. BSE, the only listed comparable, trades higher at 48.9x — on a business less than a third of NSE’s size, and on profits helped by the very options volumes NSE has lost. At the upper end of the IPO price, NSE will be valued at Rs 4.42 lakh crore.
More than nine-tenths of cash market turnover and almost all equity futures have gone through NSE every year since FY24, and neither share has been seriously challenged. Margins near 76% and a balance sheet with no borrowings come from that structure, not from one good year, it added.
NSE on Wednesday (September 16) 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 firm had fixed a price band of Rs 1,700-1,785 per share for its IPO. The IPO is an offer for sale (OFS) of up to 12.64 crore equity shares by existing shareholders, compared with the earlier planned 14.9 crore shares. The proceeds from the share sale will go entirely to the shareholders and not to NSE.
