NSE investors may face further delays for its initial public offering

Investors at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) may have to wait even more for its initial public offering (IPO).

The exchange’s management said it did not have any update from the regulator on the proposed plan to go public.

“Situations remain as it is,” said Ashishkumar Chauhan, managing director (MD) & chief executive officer (CEO) of NSE on Monday.

However, on queries if the alleged technical glitch at the exchange during listing of the follow-on-public offer (FPO) of Vodafone Idea (VIL) will have any impact on the timelines for the IPO approval, Chauhan said the issues were not related.

According to industry players, one of the key requirements for approving NSE’s IPO is for it to remain free from any tech-glitch for a year.

On the day of listing of VIL FPO, several traders complained of losses owing to the alleged glitch with the trading system at NSE.

The exchange said it plans to shift its data centre to a new location by next year. In the meantime, it is increasing the racks available in the collocation facility.

Further, the exchange may exit some more of its non-core businesses to comply with the regulatory guidelines apart from the education and IT business it has already announced.

On concerns of higher outgo due to regulatory fee to be paid on notional volume in the options segment, NSE said it has been paying the charges on the aforementioned volume for the last five years and will not have any penalty as outgo.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had last month directed rival exchange BSE to pay the charges on notional turnover instead of premium turnover in the options segment.

NSE also indicated that it may have a higher outgo towards the core settlement guarantee fund (SGF) as mandated by Sebi.

The regulator has directed market infrastructure institutions to give a higher contribution to this fund to increase the size of SGF to Rs 10,000 crore.

On increasing the number of stocks in the derivatives segment, NSE said it will wait for any regulatory update on this.