The IPO committee of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India has officially announced that it has appointed Rothschild & Company as an independent advisor to oversee its long-awaited initial public offering (IPO).
The development came after an NSE board meeting on February 6 approved the launch of the much-awaited IPO on February 6, entirely through an offer-for-sale (OFS), with no fresh issue of shares.
“Considered and approved undertaking an initial public offering (IPO) through an offer for sale by existing shareholders of the company (OFS), for the listing of the equity shares of face value of Re 1 each of the company,” the NSE had stated on February 6.
The NSE plans to file the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) of its IPO by the end of March or early April.
However, the NSE is yet to officially announce the details of its IPO’s timeline and issue size, though the size of the IPO is expected to be around $2.5 billion (Rs 22,500 crore), with existing shareholders looking to sell between 4% and 4.5%. Institutional investors in NSE include LIC, SBI and Singapore-based Temasek.
As part of preparations for the listing, the NSE has also reconstituted a dedicated IPO committee to oversee its IPO process. The IPO committee is chaired by non-independent director Tablesh Pandey, Srinivas Injeti, Professor Mamata Biswal, Justice (Retired) Abhilasha Kumari, Professor G Sivakumar and NSE Managing Director and CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan.
“The advisor (Rothschild) will lead a transparent, governance‑driven process to select Book Running Lead Managers, legal counsels and other intermediaries for the NSE’s IPO. Responsibilities include developing an objective evaluation framework, defining clear selection criteria, and managing all stages of the selection process — from documentation and clarifications to back‑off coordination and consolidation of evaluation feedback of internal stakeholders. The role also ensures information parity, consistent stakeholder communication, and comprehensive documentation of decisions,” according to the NSE statement.
Rothschild will be responsible for consolidating evaluation feedback from internal stakeholders, ensuring information parity among participants, maintaining consistent communication and comprehensively documenting all decisions related to the process, the statement mentioned.
According to the NSE statement, Rothschild will help select lead bankers, legal counsels and other intermediaries for the IPO.
Rothschild will also ensure information parity, consistent stakeholder communication and comprehensive documentation of decisions, according to the statement.