The exchange's three-day OFS will open for subscription on September 17 as the company seeks a valuation of 4.42 lakh crore at the upper band of the share price range, making it the 12th most valuable stock on the BSE.
Apart from SBI, a clutch of government-controlled insurers – GIC, NIACL, National Insurance and United India Insurance – are amongst sellers of NSE equity. Foreign funds such as Aranda Investments and the Canadian Pension Plan along with Bank of Baroda and Stock Holding Corporation are also paring down their NSE stakes via the OFS.
The fully automated NSE was set up by the government in 1993 to counter privately held BSE's sway on Dalal Street. NSE is by far the leader in traded volumes in derivatives, cash, commodities as also the debt markets in India.
NSE's OFS comes against the backdrop of a muted Dalal Street as it battles rising Brent crude prices, elevated bond yields and escalating geopolitical tensions in the West Asia. Yet, analysts expect the OFS to be a bumper success.
Billionaires galore
The NSE has been one of the most widely held and popular unlisted counters over the past 4-5 years as crores of young Indians joined the investing and trading bandwagon from 2020 onwards as the Covid years kept millions at home.
A booming economy, flying stock prices, fully-automated trading, inexpensive Internet and an underpenetrated stock market came together as a massive tailwind for the NSE over the past decade, making its unlisted shares among the most sought after by billionaires and the man on the street alike.
Billionaire Radhakishan Damani is NSE's largest individual shareholder with a 1.58 per cent stake. The exchange's gaggle of shareholders reads like the who's-who of India's Rich List and not one of them is among the sellers as they bet on a further upside post the listing.
Neither is the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), NSE's largest holder, which controls 10.72 per cent stake in the exchange. The giant has preferred not to trim its stake and may even participate as a buyer to further increase its holding.
Debt-free NSE is an immensely profitable company. It has world class margins (PAT 51 per cent, EBITDA 66.8 per cent and RoE 33 per cent) that are in the top-quartile globally and are may rise further. The exchange literally throws up cash and generously distributes it to shareholders. Its dividend payout ratio is the best globally.
