BSE Ltd, Asia’s oldest stock exchange, made a spectacular debut on the stock markets on Friday with its shares closing 33% higher than the issue price.
Shares of the company earlier known as Bombay Stock Exchange listed on the rival National Stock Exchange at Rs 1,085 apiece, up 35% from the initial public offering price of Rs 806. The shares traded between Rs 1,200 and Rs 1,065.10 before closing at Rs 1,070.55, giving it a market value of about Rs 5,850 crore ($870 million).
BSE is the first company in India to list in 2017. It is also the first Indian stock exchange—and the second bourse after Multi Commodity Exchange—to go public. MCX has a valuation of Rs 6,110 crore.
The strong debut follows last week’s Rs 1,243 crore ($184 million) IPO that was oversubscribed 50 times.
The offering attracted marquee global investors such as Capital World, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius Pvt Ltd, FIL Investment (Mauritius) Ltd and DSP BlackRock Alternative Investment Fund.
At current prices, BSE ranks among the top 20 listed exchanges in the world, according to a survey by the FTSE-Mondo Visione Exchanges Index. The CME Group, the world's most diverse derivatives marketplace, ranks first with a valuation of $40.43 billion. Its American peer Intercontinental Exchange ranks second with a valuation of $34.36 billion.
The BSE IPO involved a number of shareholders selling a total of 28.26% stake. Selling shareholders comprised Singapore Exchange Ltd (4.67% stake), US billionaire George Soros’s hedge fund Quantum (3.68%) and a unit of Citigroup Inc.
BSE’s bigger rival, the National Stock Exchange, is also working to go public and will list its shares on the BSE. NSE is aiming for a valuation of around Rs 44,450 crore ($6.6 billion), as per estimates based on its draft prospectus filed late December.
NSE will list through an offer for sale by its shareholders that include global private equity funds and financial institutions such as Tiger Global Holdings, Temasek Holdings, Goldman Sachs Inc., Citigroup as well as state-owned Indian banks like State Bank of India, IDBI Bank and Bank of Baroda. The shareholders will sell a total of 22.5% stake in NSE, as per the draft prospectus.
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