NSE to officially list on BSE on September 24, initiating its own stock trading
The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), the largest stock exchange in India, will officially list on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on September 24, initiating its own stock trading. Since the exchange itself cannot list on its own platform, NSE has chosen to list on its competitor BSE.
The IPO price range is set between ₹1700 and ₹1785 per share, with a total issuance scale of approximately ₹22,562 million. The issuance method is a 100% offer for sale by existing shareholders, with no new capital raised by the company. The subscription period is from September 17 to 21, and the allocation results were announced on September 22, with a minimum subscription amount of approximately ₹14,280 for 8 shares.
The overall subscription multiple reached 5.7 times, with Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) subscribing 12.68 times, High Net Worth Individuals (HNIs) 6.55 times, employee quotas 2.39 times, and retail investors 1.38 times. Subscription enthusiasm increased daily, from only 0.44 times on the first day to 2.03 times on the second day, peaking at 5.7 times by the last day.
Participating selling shareholders include several institutional shareholders such as State Bank of India (SBI), MS Strategic (Mauritius), Aranda Investments (Mauritius), Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Indian Securities Depository, New India Assurance, Bank of Baroda, United India Insurance, and National Insurance Company.
Based on the upper limit of the issuance price range, NSE's price-to-earnings ratio is approximately 43 times, higher than that of the Singapore Exchange (34.3 times), London Stock Exchange Group (29.3 times), Nasdaq (26 times), Hong Kong Stock Exchange (25.2 times), and major international peers like CME Group, Intercontinental Exchange, Deutsche Börse, and Cboe (21 to 24 times), making it the highest-valued listed exchange globally. If successfully listed, NSE will rank as the seventh highest exchange by market capitalization worldwide. As of June 30, 2026, NSE has 261.36 million registered investor accounts and 3,005 listed companies, with a total market capitalization of approximately ₹474.08 trillion. In terms of trading volume, NSE accounts for about 11.38% of global spot stock trading and a staggering 51.18% of global stock derivatives contract trading, making it the largest derivatives exchange in the world.
In terms of profit structure, NSE's non-trading volume-related expenses account for about 22.73% of revenue, significantly lower than CME Group (31.71%), Nasdaq (33.45%), and London Stock Exchange Group (52.06%), indicating its cost control efficiency is leading among major global exchanges. EBITDA profit margin and net profit margin are also among the top, which is the core support for its ability to achieve a valuation premium over peers. Since this issuance is entirely for existing shareholders to reduce their holdings, with the company not raising new funds, the transaction essentially allows existing shareholders (especially state-owned financial institutions like SBI) to cash out their book profits, benefiting these sellers and early participating institutional investors, while putting pressure on secondary market investors who take over at a high P/E ratio and will need NSE to maintain its monopoly in the derivatives market to absorb the valuation.
The reason this listing took nearly ten years to materialize is rooted in the "co-location scandal" exposed in 2015, where some brokers gained improper advantages by setting up servers within NSE's data center for priority access to the trading system, involving unauthorized access to backup servers and illegal fiber optic connections. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) fined NSE ₹625 million in 2019 and imposed capital market restrictions, leading to the resignation of then Vice Chairman Ravi Narain, Managing Director Chitra Ramkrishna, and Chief Operating Officer Anand Subramanian. It wasn't until July of this year that NSE paid ₹714.474 million, along with ₹776.47 million previously paid, reaching a settlement of ₹1.49121 billion (NSE did not admit wrongdoing). The Supreme Court of India officially dismissed the case on September 3, clearing the final obstacle for this IPO.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
The trend of major global exchanges transitioning from member-based institutions to publicly listed companies has been ongoing for about twenty-five years—NYSE, Nasdaq, LSE, HKEX, SGX, Deutsche Börse, Intercontinental Exchange, and CME Group have all completed this transformation, while NSE's domestic rival BSE was the first to list back in 2017. NSE's current IPO is essentially a latecomer to this global trend of exchange corporatization, with its listing attempt dating back to around 2016, delayed nearly ten years due to the co-location scandal exposed in 2015, which only proceeded after the regulatory disputes were fully resolved.
From a funding perspective, this IPO is entirely for existing shareholders to reduce their holdings, with the company itself not raising any new funds. It essentially allows state-owned financial institutions like SBI and state-owned insurance giants like General Insurance Company, along with long-term financial investors like CPPIB and Mauritius offshore fund Aranda Investments, to cash out their strategic equity holdings that have been illiquid for nearly a decade due to regulatory uncertainties. These existing shareholders chose to cash out during a period of high market enthusiasm (with an overall oversubscription of 5.7 times) and a market-driven P/E ratio pushed up to 43 times, which is a typical "selling on the heat" operation.
In comparison, BSE's listing in 2017 was based on a relatively mature but continuously eroded market share in the spot stock business by NSE; whereas NSE, upon entering the capital market, holds a global share of 51.18% in stock derivatives contract trading and the lowest non-trading volume-related cost ratio, giving it a much stronger bargaining position than BSE had back then. This is also the core reason why the market is willing to assign a higher valuation than that of mature peers like Nasdaq and LSEG. This phenomenon of "late listing yet achieving the highest premium" is also seen in other emerging market infrastructure companies that have delayed listings due to regulatory or equity disputes but have deepened their business moats.
The structural change behind this is essentially a transfer of pricing power—over the past nearly ten years, the regulatory uncertainties stemming from the co-location scandal meant that NSE's true value could only be discounted in off-market private equity transactions, with the market unable to provide a clear and comparable valuation anchor. Once the Supreme Court's settlement ruling was finalized, the regulatory risk premium was quickly transferred from private off-market transactions to the public market. The final pricing of a 43 times P/E ratio reflects the market's revaluation of NSE's near-monopoly position in the Indian derivatives market the moment the legal barriers were removed. This also indicates that for assets like exchanges, which possess network effects and regulatory licensing barriers, the core variable for valuation is often not the short-term trading volume growth, but whether a specific legal or regulatory obstacle can be completely cleared—once the obstacle is removed, the premium from monopoly status can almost be realized in one go on the listing day.
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
Litigation unresolved, valuation discounted first
Once monopoly is cleared, premium is immediately realized
Existing shareholders cash out, choosing the hottest day