Asia's oldest stock exchange BSE files for long-awaited IPO

[MUMBAI] BSE Ltd, India's second-biggest stock exchange, on Friday filed for a long-awaited initial public offering (IPO), seeking to list its shares on larger rival National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Shareholders including Singapore Exchange will be selling up to 29.96 million shares, or a 27.9 per cent stake, in the IPO, according to a draft prospectus.

Banking sources had previously said the IPO of Asia's oldest exchange was likely to raise about US$150 million for its long-time investors, some of whom are looking to cash out.

Stronger stock markets in India have sparked a boom in IPOs this year. Financial sector listings especially have been lapped up by investors, with stocks such as RBL Bank and Ujjivan Financial Services surging after their debuts.

ICICI Bank, the second-biggest Indian lender by assets, said on Thursday it was seeking to raise as much as US$909 million by selling shares in its insurance arm ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, in what will be the biggest local IPO since 2010.

Founded in 1875, BSE, whose first venue for broker meetings was under a banyan tree in India's financial capital Mumbai, has long been considering an IPO. However, lack of clarity on rules for the listing of stock exchanges had delayed the process.

Of the 107.35 million shares in BSE, trading members hold about 52.3 million shares, or 48.7 per cent with the rest held by Deutsche Boerse AG, Singapore Exchange and a group of foreign portfolio investors, insurance firms and individuals.

Singapore Exchange plans to sell its entire stake in BSE in the IPO, the prospectus showed.

BSE, formerly known as the Bombay Stock Exchange, boasts the most listings in the world with more than 5,900 listed companies but it has been dwarfed by rival NSE in trading volumes, especially since the introduction of derivatives that have increased liquidity in large caps.

For the quarter to the end of June, BSE reported total income of 1.65 billion rupees (S$33.4 million) and net profit of 527 million rupees.

Rival NSE said in June it would will file for a domestic initial public offering (IPO) by January, and would also pursue one abroad.

For the BSE IPO, Axis, Edelweiss, Jefferies and Nomura are the joint global coordinators, while Motilal Oswal, SBI Capital Markets, SMC Capitals and Spark Capital are among the other bookrunners.

REUTERS