National Stock Exchange of India secures $703M in anchor book ahead of landmark $2.4B IPO

After a decade of regulatory purgatory, India’s National Stock Exchange is finally going public. The world’s largest derivatives exchange by trading volume completed its anchor book allocation on September 16, pulling in roughly 6,745 crore rupees (about $703 million) from more than 100 institutional investors before opening its IPO to the public. The full offering targets up to 22,569 crore rupees, or roughly $2.4 billion, making it one of the largest equity listings India has seen in years. Public bidding runs September 17 through 21, with shares expected to begin trading on the BSE around September 24. Who wrote the checks The anchor book reads like a who’s-who of global institutional capital. Goldman Sachs Asset Management, GIC of Singapore, Fidelity International, Franklin Templeton, Norges Bank, ADIA, and Eastspring all participated. So did HSBC. Domestically, Life Insurance Corporation of India made the single largest allocation at 450 crore rupees, which is roughly $47 million. Foreign portfolio investors collectively accounted for about 43% of the anchor allocation. Several prominent investment managers reportedly passed on anchor participation, citing concerns about valua...