THEBUSINESSBYTES BUREAU

MUMBAI, SEPTEMBER 11, 2026

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday unveiled the final contours of its much-awaited initial public offering (IPO), with existing shareholders scaling down the number of shares on offer and the exchange setting a price band lower than broadly anticipated.

The IPO, comprising entirely an offer for sale (OFS) by existing shareholders, will open for subscription on September 17. With the price band fixed at Rs 1,700-1,785 per share, the issue is expected to mobilise between Rs 21,494 crore and Rs 22,569 crore.

The issue size is lower than the initial indication of around 14.9 crore shares, with shareholders now offering 12.64 crore shares for sale. The final price band is also significantly below levels of around Rs 2,400 a share indicated in the grey market.

At the upper end of the price band, NSE’s IPO will rank as the second-largest public issue in India to date, behind South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor India’s Rs 27,870-crore offering. It will marginally surpass the Rs 21,000-crore IPO of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).

The IPO comes at a time when Jio Platforms is also preparing for a proposed Rs 37,700-crore public issue, which could be launched during the festival season.

The NSE issue has reserved 50 per cent of the shares for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs), 15 per cent for non-institutional investors (NIIs) and 35 per cent for retail investors.

According to the red herring prospectus (RHP), several existing shareholders have also reduced the number of shares they plan to sell through the OFS.

State Bank of India (SBI) has cut its proposed offer to around 1.60 crore shares from 2.47 crore shares, while MS Strategic (Mauritius) Ltd has reduced its offer to 1.1 crore shares from 1.6 crore shares.

Bank of Baroda, Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd and General Insurance Corporation of India have also pared down their proposed stake sales. SBI Capital Markets Ltd has emerged as a new selling shareholder in the RHP.

As the NSE IPO is entirely an OFS, the proceeds from the issue will go to the selling shareholders and will not accrue to the exchange.

The public offering marks a landmark moment for NSE after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) last week cleared the exchange to proceed with its IPO.