The National Stock Exchange plans to launch its IPO by the end of this fiscal, its MD and CEO, Vikram Limaye, said here on Thursday. The exchange had filed its draft red herring prospectus in December 2016 and originally planned to hit the market in 2017. However, the planned IPO was put on the back-burner after investigations began into the co-location case.

A whistle-blower’s letter, which led to the investigations, alleged that brokers who had availed of the server co-location facility, got preferential access to the exchange’s trading system. These brokers had somehow managed to connect to the exchange’s back-up server, and hence could access the price feed faster, giving them an advantage over other brokers. “We will get the issue resolved and hopefully we can launch the IPO within this fiscal,” Limaye told reporters on the sidelines of an event organised by the ICC.

Listing for Start-Ups

According to him, the bourse is also working on tweaking its SME platform so as to create a segment for start-ups. With the Indian tech landscape changing over the last one decade, various start-ups “in the technology sphere” will want to list now. They also have credible options.

“There was a dedicated platform for technology listing, which has not really picked up... we are looking into what can be done to facilitate listings from the regulatory perspective and how that platform can be made,” he said. Start-ups, Limaye said, can also be listed on the SME exchange, depending on their nature.

“One of the things that we are looking at is rather than having one more platform, (whether it) is it possible to create a segment on NSE Emerge, which has potentially some additional tweaking of the regulations that cater to the start-up community,” he said.

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