Tuesday 22 / April / 2025
Mumbai: The BSE Ltd., Asia’s oldest stock exchange, will file a draft document for an initial share sale with the regulator in a few days, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Singapore Exchange Ltd. has offered its entire 5 per cent stake in the bourse, the people said. Other shareholders seeking an exit deposited 30 million shares in an escrow account by August 22, the last day for tendering, the people said.
SGX will evaluate its stake “as with any of its investments, as to whether it continues to fit our priorities,” spokeswoman Leela Pandit said in an e-mail. BSE spokesman Yatin Padia declined to comment on the filing of the draft papers, which was reported by the Press Trust of India late on Wednesday.
BSE, which is majority owned by member brokers, has hired banks including Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd., Axis Capital Ltd. and Jefferies Group and Nomura Holdings Inc. to sell as much as 30 per cent to the public next year. Deutsche Boerse AG is unlikely to raise its 5 per cent stake in BSE before the IPO, people familiar with the matter said last month.
BSE accounts for about 20 per cent of cash equity trading in India. The exchange’s upgraded platform from Deutsche Boerse has helped it gain market share from rival National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. India in July changed the law to allow foreign bourses to own as much as 15 per cent of equity in exchanges.
