NSE to forge ahead with domestic, overseas listings

By Rafael Nam and Abhirup Roy

MUMBAI (Reuters) - National Stock Exchange (NSE), India's biggest bourse, will file for a domestic initial public offering (IPO) by January, and will also pursue one abroad, potentially settling a long tussle with some foreign shareholders over the timing of a listing.

The NSE board, after a meeting on Friday, has also revamped a listing committee, which will be tasked with taking decisions related to the IPO, the exchange said in a statement, without disclosing the identity of the new members.

The composition of the initial committee had also raised strong opposition from some foreign shareholders, who believed the committee was too close to management and did not represent their demand for an expedited listing.

The NSE did not disclose how much money it would seek to raise via the listings, nor which exchanges it would target for the listings.

State-run financial firm IFCI Ltd in April sold 150,000 shares in NSE for 592.5 million rupees ($8.7 million), valuing the exchange at 178 billion rupees ($2.6 billion).

Smaller rival BSE Ltd has said it is aiming to file for an IPO as early as this year.

NSE said it would file a so-called draft red-herring prospectus (DHRP) by January 2017 and added "the board has also advised the management to file for overseas listing by April 2017."

The statement confirmed a report from Reuters earlier on Monday.

The decision could appease foreign shareholders who have accused the exchange of dragging its feet on a listing.

Five stakeholders, including Norwest Venture Partners, SAIF Partners and GTI Capital, have accused management of ignoring them and purging their views from minutes.

The NSE has strongly denied these claims and argued it was keen on a listing, but was uncomfortable with current laws that require it to list on another exchange rather than on itself, thus exposing it to being regulated by a rival bourse.

The exchange has lobbied regulators for permission to self-list or be regulated by the country's securities regulator.

A source at the NSE told Reuters no decision on the listing venues had been taken.

NSE's decision to commit to a listing timetable comes after the exchange appointed Ashok Chawla, the former head of the Competition Commission of India, as its chairman in May.

Foreign shareholders welcomed the NSE's commitment.

"It's good that they have given a timeline," said Amit Jain, a managing director at GTI. "I'd still keep my fingers crossed that it does achieve those timelines."

($1 = 67.9575 rupees)

(Additional reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Mark Potter)