- NSE filed its draft red herring prospectus for a major IPO with SEBI on June 17
- The IPO is a pure offer-for-sale with no fresh capital raised by NSE itself
- State Bank of India and other public institutions lead the shareholder exits
After years of regulatory freezes, legal overhangs and false starts, India's largest stock exchange is finally headed to the public markets. The National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. filed its draft red herring prospectus with SEBI on June 17, setting in motion what could be one of the largest IPOs in Indian capital market history.
The offer is a pure offer-for-sale, meaning NSE itself raises no fresh capital. Instead, a clutch of long-waiting shareholders, led by State Bank of India, finally get their exit. The shares will list on rival BSE Ltd., setting up a direct, publicly traded face-off between the country's two main exchanges for the first time.
Here, at NDTV Profit, we take you through a series of charts that break down the structure of the offer, the marquee names cashing out, the financial engine under the hood, and the long road that brought NSE to this point.
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The offer at a glance
NSE will list on rival BSE in a pure offer-for-sale, putting India's two main exchanges head to head on the screen for the first time.
Every share on offer comes from existing holders. NSE itself raises nothing, and goes public with no promoter on its books. Interestingly, shares are listing on rival BSE rather than its own platform, as is the case with BSE only being listed on the NSE.
The NSE IPO journey
NSE's latest filing marks the end of a listing journey that has streched nearly a decade. The exchange had first filed its draft papers in 2016, but the plan was shelved after the co-location controversy triggered regulatory scrutiny, thus delayed the process for years.
Since then, NSE has worked to resolve legacy issues, including settlement applications worth about Rs 1,491 crore. The path to listing accelerated in 2024 after shareholders approved a 4:1 bonus issues, followed by SEBI clearin the way in January 2026 before formally approving the IPO a month later.
With the DRHP now filed, the exchange moves into the next phase of regulatory review before announcing its price band, subscription dates and eventual market debut.
Who is cashing out?
State Bank of India leads the exit, trimming the most among a row of state banks, insurers and overseas funds.
Foreign investors such as MS Strategic (Mauritius), CPPIB and Aranda Investments are also among the top contributors to the offer.
Public-sector financial institutions, including Bank of Baroda, General Insurance Corp, New India Assurance, National Insurance and United India Insurance, feature prominently, highlighting the broad-based ownership that has built up in NSE over the years.
Who owns NSE?
LIC sits on top with 10.72%, but no single owner controls NSE. The 15 biggest names together hold under half of it.
The shareholder base spans insurers, state-run banks, private equity investors and global institutions such as CPPIB, while the remaining 53.5% is spread across a long tail of investors.
Who are the marquee investors?
From ace investor Radhakishan Damani to Infosys co-founder R Gopalakrishnan, some of India's best-known investors have quietly held NSE for years.
Damani is the largest among the marquee individual shareholders with a 1.58% stake, while S. Gopalakrishnan, Sunil Kant Munjal, Sundar Iyer, Chandrakant Gogri and Dolly Khanna also feature on the register.
The financial engine
After hitting record highs in FY25, NSE saw revenue and profit moderate in FY26 as trading activity cooled and costs increased.
Revenue from operations declined 3.1% to Rs 16,601 crore, while net profit fell 15.5% to Rs 10,302 crore, weighed down by lower clearing income, higher settlement-related charges and rising technology spending.
Even so, the exchange remained highly profitable, with FY26 earnings comfortably above FY24 levels.
NSE by the numbers
NSE's scale is hard to match. The exchange is the world's largest equity derivatives bourse by contracts traded, accounting for 36.99 billion contracts and 51% of global market share in FY26.
It serves more than 25 crore registered accounts, processes 12–14 billion messages daily, and supports nearly 3,000 listed entities and over 1,300 trading members.
NSE vs BSE
Finally, when it comes a direct comparison between NSE and BSE, the numbers are highly skewed in favour of NSE, which dominates cash market activity, derivatives trading and overall turnover, generating more than three times BSE's revenue in FY26.
BSE's notable advantage comes in primary markets, where it facilitated slightly more IPOs than NSE. Even so, NSE remains the clear leader across most trading and financial metrics.
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