The National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE) has hired Rothschild & Co. as an advisor to lead the company to an IPO, the bourse told Mint in a response to an emailed query.
Advisors from Rothschild will be guiding NSE on various processes like running a beauty parade, and hiring legal counsel for the IPO, the statement said.
A beauty parade is the process by which a listing-bound company interviews and selects investment banks for its offering.
Rothschild’s responsibilities will include “developing an objective evaluation framework, defining clear selection criteria, and managing all stages of the selection process—from documentation and clarifications to back‑off coordination and consolidation of evaluation feedback of internal stakeholders,” the NSE statement read.
Now, the exchange will begin inviting investment banks to submit IPO pitches within the next three weeks, a person aware of the developments told Mint.
Last week, NSE formally approved its IPO, paving the way for the country’s largest stock exchange to list on the bourses after a prolonged delay.
The offer will see stake sale by existing shareholders, the company had said then. NSE’s proposed IPO will see shares carry a face value of ₹1 each, the exchange notified.
The company might see a 4-4.5% stake sale, which might take up to eight months, chief executive officer Ashishkumar Chauhan had told reporters earlier this month.
The exchange had, last week, also approved the formation of an IPO committee to oversee and execute the listing process.
Such a panel is mandatory for companies without promoters looking to go public.
This is the committee that will now be advised by Rothschild.
The committee will be chaired by Life Insurance Corporation of India’s (LIC) former managing director, Tablesh Pandey, who currently serves as a non-independent director on the exchange’s board. Pandey, who retired as LIC’s managing director effective 31 May 2025, is also a director of ITC Hotels Ltd.
India’s largest life insurer is the single-largest shareholder with a 10.7% stake as of December-end.
Other members of the committee include NSE’s newly appointed chairperson, Srinivas Injeti; public interest directors Mamata Biswal, Abhilasha Kumari, and G. Sivakumar; and CEO Chauhan.
The exchange’s third-quarter profit rose 15% sequentially to ₹2,409 crore, while its revenue from operations increased 7% to ₹3,925 crore.
NSE’s operating income, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda), almost doubled to ₹2,851 crore, while its margin widened to 73% from the September quarter’s 40%.
The margin improved as other expenses fell to ₹542 crore from ₹1,811 crore, driven by one-time provisioning in the prior quarter.
