National Stock Exchange filed its DRHP with SEBI on June 17, 2026, for a ~₹30,000 crore IPO that would be India's largest-ever — but it is a 100% Offer for Sale (OFS), so NSE itself receives not a single rupee, even as its FY26 revenue fell 3.1% to ₹16,601 crore and net profit dropped 15.5% to ₹10,302 crore.
Let's be clear about something the headlines are burying: NSE is not raising money. Every rupee from this IPO goes to selling shareholders — SBI, Canada Pension Plan, Morgan Stanley and others who've been waiting a decade to exit. NSE, the company, gets zero. That's the definition of an OFS (Offer for Sale) — existing shareholders sell their stake; no fresh equity is issued.
Now here's where a CFO's eyebrow goes up. The market is pricing NSE at roughly ₹5 lakh crore — implying a P/E in the high-40s. That's the price-to-earnings ratio: market cap divided by annual profit. Fine for a near-monopoly with 55% net margins and 93% market share in cash equities. But here's the uncomfortable part: FY26 earnings actually fell 15.5%. You're paying a premium multiple for a business that just printed its first decline in years — caused by SEBI's own F&O tightening rules biting into NSE's biggest revenue stream.
This is the core valuation tension: a moat business deserves a premium P/E. But a moat business with shrinking earnings and a regulator as its single biggest risk factor deserves scrutiny. LIC, holding 10.72%, chose not to sell a single share — that's a signal worth reading.
As a CFO, I'd tell my team: strip out the one-time NSDL stake-sale gain baked into FY26 profits, restate normalised earnings, then apply the multiple. That's the number that should drive your IPO decision — not the grey market price.
📚 Learn the concept: Valuation
Source: https://blog.stockedge.com/nse-ipo-details/
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