CDSL IPO on track? SEBI gives June 30 deadline for BSE to cut stake in depository

In what will pave the way for the listing of Central Depository Services Limited (CDSL), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has given a final three-month extension to the BSE to cut its stake in the depository.

Norms laid down by the regulator in 2012 had required exchanges to cut stake in depositories to a maximum of 24 percent within three years (by April 2015), a deadline that was extended by another two years (by March 31 this year) and which the BSE wanted extended further.

BSE holds a little over 50 percent stake in CDSL.

Sources close to the development have told Moneycontrol that the regulator has not agreed to give any extension beyond June 30, which means that it clears the path for the CDSL's IPO.

The depository had filed its DRHP for a Rs 400 crore IPO in December last year, comprising of an offer for sale through which BSE could sell its stake. But its fate hinged on BSE's request of seeking more time to pare its stake.

Sources said following SEBI's latest directive, BSE has now given its go-ahead to CDSL, which can now decide upon when to go ahead with an RHP.

Further, BSE had requested SEBI to be allowed to hold four seats on the depository's board, two more than are normally allowed but the regulator has turned down that request as well.

In December 2015, SEBI had issued a framework for listing of exchanges and depositories, after which BSE became the first stock exchange in India to get listed.

Upon listing, CDSL would become the first depository to be listed.

BSE's rival NSE, which is the co-promoter of the country's other key depository NSDL, is also slated to get listed this year.