NSE’s $2.4B IPO subscribed 5.7 times in historic offering

The National Stock Exchange of India just pulled off something that was years in the making. Its $2.4 billion initial public offering closed on September 21 with an overall subscription rate of 5.7 times, meaning investors collectively bid for nearly six times the shares available. The IPO, sized at Rs 22,569 crore, now ranks as India’s second-largest public offering ever, trailing only Hyundai Motor India’s blockbuster listing in 2024. Shares are set to begin trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange on September 24. Institutional investors led the charge The subscription data tells a clear story about where the enthusiasm came from. Qualified institutional buyers, the category that includes mutual funds, insurance companies, and foreign portfolio investors, subscribed at 12.68 times their allotted portion. Non-institutional investors, which includes high-net-worth individuals and corporate bodies, came in at 6.55 times. Retail investors, by contrast, were comparatively restrained at 1.39 times. Employee subscriptions landed around 2.39 times. At a price band of Rs 1,700 to Rs 1,785 per share, the minimum retail lot of 8 shares required an outlay of Rs 14,280. That’s a meaningful check...