NSE listing on track after resignation of CEO - sources

By Abhirup Roy and Rafael Nam

MUMBAI (Reuters) - National Stock Exchange will pursue plans to raise up to $1 billion via a public listing after Chief Executive Chitra Ramkrishna's decision to step down last week, said four sources familiar with the matter.

Two of those sources said the initial public offering (IPO) plans are now likely to move faster after Ramkrishna resigned over differences with the board about the IPO process.

The IPO, potentially India's biggest in six years, ran into internal hurdles last month after Ramkrishna told the NSE board she would not take part in a pre-listing investor roadshow due to start some time next year, the two sources said.

All four sources declined to be named because they have not been authorised to discuss the matter publicly.

Ramkrishna's resignation was accepted by the NSE board on Friday, because her lack of participation would have cast a shadow over the IPO process, two of the sources said.

"She did not want to be the face of the IPO to the outside world," one source told Reuters. "She had told a lot of people that she wasn't keen on continuing."

Some of the board members were already unhappy with aspects of her tenure, including her hiring of Chief Operating Officer Subramanian Anand, who was asked to leave after the board took issue with his hiring process and renumeration, said two sources.

Reuters could not reach Ramkrishna or Anand for comment on the matter.

A spokesman for the NSE denied she had stepped down over the IPO process.

"Ramkrishna resigned on personal grounds and it had nothing to do with her participation in IPO roadshows," said the NSE's head of communications Arindam Saha, adding that the NSE stood by its stated IPO timeline.

The NSE has previously stated it would file draft paperwork to start an IPO process by January.

The sources Reuters spoke with were unclear as to why Ramkrishna had objected to taking part in the roadshows. The NSE has yet to outline a timeline around the roadshows.

Reuters had previously reported differences over the timing of the IPO had been causing friction between Ramkrishna and some of NSE's foreign shareholders.

The exchange on Monday named a new CEO search panel and one of the sources said the exchange wants to find a new CEO fast.

Bankers had previously said the NSE could raise as much as $1 billion in a listing that could be the biggest since Coal India's listing in 2010.

NSE's older rival BSE Ltd is also set to public next year in an IPO expected to raise about $150 million.

($1 = 67.9050 Indian rupees)

(Additional reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Euan Rocha/Ruth Pitchford)