MCX plans post-Holi listing on BSE

After a record-breaking investor demand in the Initial Public Offer (IPO) of its shares, the country's largest commodity exchange MCX may get listed in the stock market this week, possibly on March 9.

Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX), which is set to become the country's first bourse to get listed, is planning to allot shares to successful IPO bidders by the middle of this week, pursuant to which it plans to list on the BSE, sources said.

The shares could be allotted by March 6-7 and the listing could take place on March 9, as the markets would be closed for Holi on March 8, they added.

Post its listing, MCX would have lakhs of retail investors as its shareholders, unlike other privately-held exchanges where majority shares are owned by a few foreign and private entities.

Experts believe that the robust demand for MCX IPO could also lead to other exchanges getting listed and also help revive the overall primary market.

The IPO got over-subscribed more than 54 times with bids worth about Rs 36,000 crore, as against the targeted proceeds of up to Rs 663 crore through sale of 64.27 lakh shares.

Out of this, over nine lakh shares were sold to 12 anchor investors for about Rs 96 crore, a day prior to the beginning of the three-day bidding for shares in the IPO on February 22.

The bidding for the remaining 55 lakh shares is estimated to have fetched about Rs 567 crore.

 MCX had set a price band of Rs 860-1,032 per share for the IPO, and the final price was fixed at the top end (Rs 1,032) given the strong demand witnessed for the offer. The anchor investors were also allocated shares at the same price.

The first ever public offer by an Indian exchange has also emerged as the most successful IPO in about four years.

In terms of demand from retail investors, the MCX IPO is said to have surpassed all previous records, as the shares reserved for the retail shareholders were over-subscribed nearly 24 times -- higher than any major public offer so far.

Overall, it got subscribed 54.13 times with the highest over-subscription level since Anil Ambani-led Reliance group's R-Power IPO in January 2008 that was subscribed 73 times.

The previous highly successful IPO was of state-run Coal India in October 2010, which got subscribed 15 times overall, but the retail portion was subscribed only about two times.

The share sale in another public sector behemoth ONGC through a one-day auction last week got subscribed only about 98% only after state-run insurer LIC is said to have pitched a large majority of bids.

The promoters FTIL currently hold 31.2% in MCX, which would come down to about 26% after the IPO.

FTIL, SBI, Bank of Baroda, GLF Financials Fund, Alexandra Mauritius Ltd, Corporation Bank and ICICI Lombard General Insurance were the investors divesting part of their holdings in MCX through the IPO.