BSE appoints 7 merchant bankers to handle IPO

NSE too invites final pitches from merchant bankers

The BSE, Asia’s oldest bourse, has appointed seven merchant bankers to handle its initial public offering (IPO). The BSE is looking to raise anywhere between Rs 400 crore and Rs 1,200 crore from the IPO. The bankers include Edelweiss Financial Services, Axis Capital, Jefferies, Nomura, Deutsche Bank, Motilal Oswal and SBI Capital Markets, said sources. While the first four will act as joint global coordinators, the latter three will serve as book running lead managers.

Meanwhile, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) has also invited final pitches from merchant bankers and is likely to finalise names by next week. Banks such as Kotak, Citi, HSBC, JM Financial, Bank of America Merrill Lynch are said to be in the reckoning. Sources said bankers appointed by the BSE would not be part of the NSE IPO. The exchange had said it would file a draft prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India by January 2017 for domestic listing, and another one for overseas listing by April next year.

An SMS sent to BSE and NSE spokespersons did not get an immediate response.

The number of bankers appointed by the BSE this time is less than that in 2012 when as many as 14 investment bankers were appointed. These included foreign entities like Bank of America Merrill-Lynch, JPMorgan India, Barclays Securities and UBS Securities, besides domestic ones such as Kotak Mahindra Capital, Edelweiss Financial Services, ICICI Securities and Axis Capital.

Business Standard had reported in May that the number of bankers appointed would be less than 10. The exchange had already appointed Edelweiss as lead merchant banker earlier this year. The BSE's consolidated net profit for 2015-16 declined 38 per cent to Rs 96.7 crore from Rs 155.5 crore in the previous year. The dip could impact the exchange’s valuations when the IPO is sold to investors, say observers.

Earlier this year, the BSE had told Sebi it had met the requirements of the amended regulations on Stock Exchanges and Clearing Corporations (SECC), and was in a position to proceed with its IPO.