NSE IPO 2026: ₹30,000 crore filing ends 10-year wait

Why NSE’s IPO is back in focus

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has returned to the centre of market attention after filing draft papers for its long-awaited initial public offering. Reports and market estimates put the issue size as high as ₹30,000 crore, a level that could make it India’s largest public issue to date. The move revives a listing process that began in 2016 but remained stuck in regulatory hurdles and legal proceedings for years. For India’s capital markets, an NSE listing is being framed as another milestone in the evolution of market infrastructure. It is also closely watched because the exchange sits at the heart of equities and derivatives trading in India.

DRHP filing and what is known so far

NSE filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), marking a major step towards a stock market debut after nearly a decade. Some reports had indicated the filing could happen as early as Wednesday, June 17, and multiple outlets said the DRHP would be filed that day. The renewed momentum follows SEBI’s clearance for the exchange to proceed with the public issue, after earlier delays linked to investigations and governance concerns. The filing is a procedural milestone, but it also signals that NSE believes the key blockers that stalled its earlier attempt have meaningfully eased.

Offer-for-sale structure and expected issue size

According to reporting cited in the provided material, the NSE IPO is structured entirely as an offer for sale (OFS), with no fresh issue of shares. That means existing shareholders would sell part of their holdings, rather than NSE raising new capital for the balance sheet. Estimates for the deal size vary across reports. The most widely cited headline figure is around ₹30,000 crore, while other estimates place it in a wider band of ₹17,000 crore to ₹30,000 crore. Another reported range is ₹21,000 crore to ₹25,000 crore.

A separate estimate, based on current unlisted market prices, said the IPO could involve a 4% to 4.5% stake sale, potentially valuing the issue at around ₹23,000 crore. The same set of reports also framed the stake sale in dollar terms at $1.5 billion to $1.5 billion (around ₹23,000 crore). The dispersion in numbers reflects that final size and pricing depend on the approved DRHP, final offer structure, and market conditions closer to launch.

A decade-long saga rooted in the co-location controversy

NSE first filed IPO papers in 2016, but the plan was derailed by regulatory investigations, legal disputes, and the co-location controversy. The controversy centred on allegations that certain brokers may have received preferential access to exchange servers and market data, including through co-location facilities and dark fibre networks. Those allegations triggered prolonged scrutiny and kept the listing on hold for years. What could have been a routine listing process turned into a long-running episode involving regulators, courts, and repeated compliance reviews.

While rival BSE went public in 2017, NSE stayed unlisted despite dominating India’s stock market ecosystem. The material also notes that the issues surfaced around 2015, and the overhang remained for years. In 2025, NSE filed settlement applications to resolve pending matters. One account said the “skies cleared up” after a settlement payment of ₹1,388 crore in June 2025, while another described the settlement as approximately ₹1,400 crore.

SEBI NOC, board approval, and a key court decision

A breakthrough came when SEBI granted a no-objection certificate (NOC), allowing NSE to move forward. The material references SEBI granting an NOC in January, and another report references a settlement with SEBI in January 2026 for ₹1,300 crore, as part of the process of clearing the path for the IPO. Following SEBI’s NOC, NSE’s board approved an IPO through an offer for sale on 6 February 2026, according to NSE’s response cited in the material.

A further legal hurdle was addressed when the Delhi High Court dismissed a petition challenging SEBI’s NOC on February 16, 2026. The court did not grant a stay on SEBI’s approval. This effectively removed a key legal barrier and reduced the risk of immediate judicial intervention disrupting the listing preparations.

Leadership context: Ashish Chauhan’s clean-up brief

When Ashish Chauhan took charge in July 2022, NSE was emerging from one of the most difficult phases in its history, according to the provided text. The exchange was dealing with governance concerns, regulatory scrutiny, and the fallout from the co-location controversy. His core task was to restore confidence, address pending issues with regulators, and prepare the exchange for listing. Industry experts cited in the material say repairing the relationship with SEBI was critical, particularly because large global institutional pools of capital, including sovereign wealth funds and pension funds, look for regulatory clarity before investing in major public offerings.

Preparing the deal: bankers, lawyers, and listing venue

NSE has appointed 20 merchant bankers and several law firms and intermediaries to manage the IPO process, as cited in the material. A Mint report cited people familiar with the matter saying NSE brought together all 20 appointed investment bankers earlier in the week to kickstart drafting the offer document and outline a preliminary timeline. The list of appointed firms mentioned includes Kotak Mahindra Capital Company and J.P. Morgan India.

The listing is expected to be on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), with the material noting that NSE will not self-list due to Indian regulations. A separate reference says Ashish Chauhan confirmed NSE will list on BSE.

Key facts at a glance

Timeline of the long-delayed listing process

Market impact and why the filing matters

At the upper end of reported estimates, a ₹30,000 crore public issue would set a new benchmark for Indian IPO size. Because the issue is described as an OFS, the listing is primarily about shareholder exits and price discovery, rather than capital raising for expansion. The filings and approvals also have signalling value: for institutional investors that track governance and regulatory risk closely, the shift from a decade-long regulatory saga to an active filing process is itself a material change.

The story also matters because NSE is a core institution in India’s market plumbing. Its listing process is being watched not only as a corporate event, but also as a test of how quickly market infrastructure entities can resolve legacy governance issues and move to public-market scrutiny.

Conclusion

NSE’s DRHP filing brings a long-running IPO effort closer to reality after years of delays linked to the co-location controversy, governance concerns, and legal challenges. With a reported OFS structure, an expected listing on BSE, and issue-size estimates reaching up to ₹30,000 crore, the next key steps will be SEBI’s review process and the final offer details disclosed in the prospectus. The timeline now hinges on regulatory processing and the exchange’s final launch schedule after the draft papers are examined.