Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], January 15 NSE MD and CEO Ashish Chauhan on Thursday asserted that the SEBI in-principally clearing the way for their IPO is "good news", but its actualisation will still take a few months.
This comes after the SEBI Chairman recently indicated to clear NOC for the IPO, possibly this month. Tuhin Kanta Pandey said that the Board is at a very advanced stage of issuing the No Objection Certificate (NOC).
"Possibly within this month," the SEBI Chairman had indicated, raising expectations of progress on the listing front.
Even as reports indicate that the markets regulator has, in principle, agreed to the exchange's settlement application in the unfair market access case, which had apparently been a major hurdle for the much-awaited IPO, Chauhan said they had not yet officially received the "intimation" from SEBI.
"That's good news, and we have not yet got the intimation," he said, talking to ANI, when asked to respond to SEBI's reportedly in-principle clearance.
Once SEBI officially issues the no-objection certificate to NSE, Chauhan said, "then only we will be able to file DRHP."
Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) is typically a document that consists of the company's financial details, future prospects, and other key aspects regarding the business and is being filed to the regulator to raise money essentially via public offerings of its shares.
Preparing DRHP, according to Chauhan, will take three-four months. "Then we'll file with SEBI again. They have a process which takes two-three months at least, or sometimes four months. So it's still seven-eight months away after the NOC is received," Chauhan added.
Notably, the NSE has been seeking regulatory clearance for its public listing for several years, following governance concerns and the co-location controversy that came under SEBI's scrutiny.
NSE initially filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) in December 2016. The process was delayed by regulatory challenges, particularly allegations of unfair access to its algorithmic trading platform in India.
Later in August 2024, the NSE reapplied to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for a no-objection certificate to proceed with its IPO.
In October 2024, the NSE settled its Trading Access Point (TAP) Architecture and Network Connectivity case by paying a penalty of Rs 643 crore to SEBI, which was probing an alleged deficiency on the part of the exchange and its top officials to deal with a situation wherein some high-frequency stock traders were found to be gaming the system.