India's largest stock exchange, the National Stock Exchange (NSE), has finally filed draft papers for its long-awaited initial public offering (IPO), paving the way for one of the country's biggest listings this year alongside Reliance Jio.
The move comes nearly a decade after NSE first sought approval to go public in 2016. Its plans were delayed by regulatory investigations and legal disputes with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
NSE is India's largest stock exchange and the world's most active derivatives exchange. Based on transactions in the unlisted market, the exchange is estimated to be valued at around $55 billion.
If listed at that valuation, NSE would rank among India's 10 most valuable companies and be comparable in size to the London Stock Exchange Group, which has a market value of about $58 billion.
While NSE has not announced a timeline for the issue, the IPO is expected to take at least three to four months after receiving the necessary regulatory approvals.
According to the draft prospectus:
Existing shareholders will sell 14.89 crore equity shares.
The offer represents about 6 percent of NSE's total equity.
NSE has more than two lakh shareholders, making it India's most widely held unlisted company.
Earlier this year, the government reduced the minimum public shareholding requirement for very large companies. Firms expected to be valued above ₹5 trillion after listing are now required to sell only 2.5 percent of their paid-up capital, compared with the earlier 5 percent requirement.
Several domestic and foreign investors are expected to participate in the offer for sale.
Key sellers include:
State Bank of India
Bank of Baroda
State-owned insurance companies
Singapore's Temasek
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB)
NSE has built one of the world's largest retail investor ecosystems.
Key numbers include:
Around 25 crore investor accounts
More than 13 crore unique investors
This gives NSE a significantly larger retail participation base than global exchanges such as CME Group, Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, where institutional investors dominate trading activity.
For the financial year ended March 2026, NSE reported:
Total income of ₹18,700 crore
Net profit of ₹10,302 crore
Net profit margin of 53 percent
Transaction charges remain the exchange's biggest revenue source, contributing around 82 percent of total income.
SEBI granted NSE permission in January 2026 to proceed with the IPO process.
The listing had been held up by a long-running dispute linked to the exchange's co-location case. In 2019, SEBI imposed a penalty of ₹1,100 crore on NSE for failing to provide equal access to all trading members.
According to the draft filing, NSE has sought to settle the matter by paying a penalty of around $16 crore as part of the regulatory proceedings.