National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. has lowered the price range for its long-awaited IPO and may shrink the stake on sale, according to people familiar with the matter, leaving the deal poised to fall short of becoming India’s biggest-ever listing.
NSE is likely to set its IPO price at ₹1,700-1,785 per share, below an earlier marketed range of ₹2,000-2,100, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. It may also reduce the stake being offered to about 5.5% of the total equity capital from the originally planned 6%, after some shareholders backed out of selling their stakes at the lower price, they said.
At the top of the proposed range, the sale of a 5.5% stake would raise about ₹24,300 crore, below the ₹27,900 crore raised by Hyundai Motor India Ltd. in 2024 in the country’s largest-ever IPO. That would peg the NSE IPO valuation at as much as ₹4.42 lakh crore, compared with previously targeted ₹5.26 lakh crore.
NSE’s decision to downsize the deal reflects unease over its valuation as growth slows and regulators step up scrutiny of stock-market activity. Options trading, a key driver of the exchange’s success, has come under particular pressure, with the government doubling the transaction tax on some derivatives and proposing a higher short-term capital gains tax.
Also denting the sentiment around the industry, Indian stocks have been chronic under-performers. The benchmark Nifty 50 index is down 10% this year, compared with a 25% gain in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.