NSE IPO hinges on approval from Sebi, says CEO Ashish Kumar Chauhan

Ashish Chauhan, chief executive officer of National Stock Exchange of India Ltd., on the sidelines of the HSBC Global Investment Summit in Hong Kong, China, on Monday, April 8, 2024. The summit runs through April 10.

India’s largest stock exchange is awaiting clearance from the securities regulator to proceed with its public listing plans, according to Chief Executive Officer Ashish Kumar Chauhan.

The National Stock Exchange of India Ltd., whose initial public offering has faced delays since it initial filing in 2016, needs approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India to reapply, Chauhan said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Friday.

“We will be able to prepare our papers” only after getting a no-objection certificate from the regulator, he said. “So, it will take time.”

SEBI initially halted NSE’s plans for a listing as the exchange was mired in several cases relating to granting some high-speed traders unfair access to its co-location servers. The bourse has since addressed the regulator’s concerns and, last month was cleared of allegations of connivance and collusion in a decade-old case of unfair market access.

The acquittal has triggered a frenzy for the bourse’s stock in the private market for unlisted shares, doubling its valuations in just four months on IPO hopes, Bloomberg reported in September. NSE’s valuation exceeds $36 billion, making it larger than CBOE Global Markets Inc., Japan Exchange Group Inc. and Singapore Exchange Ltd.