India’s largest stock exchange, the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), has formally filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), marking a major milestone in its long-awaited journey to the public markets.
The proposed initial public offering (IPO) is expected to be worth around ₹30,000 crore and is likely to be structured entirely as an Offer for Sale (OFS), with existing shareholders selling a portion of their holdings rather than the exchange issuing fresh shares.
According to reports, approximately 6% of NSE’s equity will be divested through the IPO. Based on the exchange’s unlisted-market valuation of nearly ₹5 lakh crore, the issue could become one of the largest public offerings in India’s capital market history.
Among the selling shareholders, State Bank of India is expected to be the largest seller, potentially offloading up to 24.75 million shares. Other major investors likely to participate include entities linked to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Singapore-based investment firms, and global funds such as Tiger Global Management.
The listing is expected to unlock value for NSE’s roughly 1.8 lakh shareholders by enabling transparent price discovery and providing liquidity through a regulated public market. Once listed, NSE will join BSE Limited and Multi Commodity Exchange of India as the only exchange operators in India whose shares trade on stock exchanges.
A Decade-Long Wait
NSE’s IPO journey has been unusually prolonged. The exchange first sought a public listing in 2016, but regulatory hurdles, most notably investigations into the co-location controversy, where certain brokers were alleged to have received preferential access to trading systems, delayed the process for nearly a decade. Following settlements and regulatory clearances, including approval from SEBI earlier this year, the exchange has finally moved forward with its listing plans.
Founded in 1992, NSE transformed India’s capital markets by introducing nationwide electronic trading and helping shift the market away from traditional open-outcry systems. Today, it is the country’s dominant equities and derivatives exchange, with around 257 million investor accounts. For the financial year ended March 2026, NSE reported total income of ₹187 billion and net profit of ₹103 billion, reflecting a net margin of more than 50%. Transaction charges account for the bulk of its revenue.
The IPO is expected to attract strong institutional and retail interest, not only because of NSE’s market leadership but also because it represents the culmination of one of the most anticipated listings in Indian financial-market history. If market conditions remain favourable, the exchange could debut on the bourses within the next few months, bringing a decade-long wait to an end.
