NSE IPO: Haven't applied for shares to trade on own platform, says MD and CEO Chauhan

The National Stock Exchange hasn't filed any application with the Securities and Exchange Board of India to allow its shares to be traded on its own exchange, Ashish Kumar Chauhan said on Friday.

"NSE has not made any application to SEBI for allowing its shares to be traded," Chauhan told reporters.

There had been some reports earlier that NSE may allow its shares to trade on its platform after listing on a rival bourse, under the existing permitted-to-trade framework. Under existing regulations of SEBI, a stock exchange can't allow its shares to trade on its own platform. So, BSE shares, for instance, trade on the NSE. Similarly, NSE shares will have to list on a rival exchange.

Chauhan's statement comes as the world's largest derivatives exchange gets ready to launch its much-anticipated initial public offering.

NSE has announced a price band of Rs 1,700-1,785 a share for its public issue, which is entirely an offer for sale.

Existing shareholders propose to sell 12.64 crore equity shares, equivalent to around a 5.11% stake in the exchange. The OFS size has seen a reduction of around 15%. In the draft prospectus, the exchange had proposed selling 14.9 crore equity shares.

At the upper end of the price band, the IPO is expected to raise around Rs 22,568.92 crore, which will also be lower than the over Rs 30,000 crore that it was expected to raise earlier.

Chauhan stressed that the pricing of the issue was based on the advice of merchant bankers only.

In downsizing the issue too, Chauhan explained that shareholders had been invited to tender shares before filing the updated DRHP (draft red herring prospectus) and, based on their stated number, the initial size of the IPO was based.

NSE commands a dominant market share in India's equity market. For instance, it has a cash market share of 93.05%. Its share in the equity futures market is as much as 99.72%. Its share in equity options is 68.48%.

In the year ended March 2026, NSE reported a net profit of Rs 10,302 crore on revenue of Rs 16,601 crore.

Transaction charges, however, accounted for 70% of its revenue last year. Is the exchange too dependent on transaction revenue? Officials pointed the revenue from other lines was growing at a faster clip.

"Over the last five years, our composition of revenue from transaction charges was 79%, which has now come down to 70%. New revenue lines like data and connectivity, indices, which together compose 11% of the revenue, are growing at a fast pace, reducing our dependence on transaction charges," said Ian De Souza, CFO of NSE.

However, he also pointed out that the economy is still growing strongly, the ratio of market cap to GDP is still low, compared to developed markets, and therefore there was a long runway for growth; as a result, there was a long growth runway for transaction charges too.

Chauhan was instrumental in taking BSE public, and the NSE IPO will now place him in a very unique position of taking two of the country's largest exchanges public.

The country's largest lender, State Bank of India, state-owned insurance companies like GIC, National Insurance, United India Insurance, Bank of Baroda, Stock Holding Corporation and several foreign funds like Aranda Investments and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board are among those paring their stake in the NSE IPO.