NSE – Selects 20 Merchant Bankers for Proposed IPO

Expert Analysis:

• The National Stock Exchange of India has appointed 20 merchant bankers to manage its long-awaited initial public offering (IPO), marking the largest number of bankers ever selected for an Indian public issue.

• The list includes major investment banks such as Kotak Mahindra Capital, SBI Capital Markets, J.P. Morgan, and Citigroup, reflecting the scale and complexity of the proposed listing.

• In addition to the bankers, eight law firms—including Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Trilegal, and Latham & Watkins—have been engaged to support the IPO process, along with intermediaries such as MUFG Intime and strategy consultancy Redseer.

• NSE’s listing process has been delayed for years due to regulatory disputes. The exchange had been fined ₹11 billion (about $120 million) in 2019 over market access issues before finally receiving approval to go public in January 2026.

• The scale of the advisory team reflects the complexity of the listing as NSE is India’s largest unlisted company by number of investors, making the IPO structurally more complicated than typical public issues.