The National Stock Exchange (NSE) today filed draft papers with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for its much-awaited IPO, expected to be one of the biggest in recent times, with an estimated size of over Rs 10,000 crore.

The initial public offer will see existing shareholders offloading 20-25 per cent shares to the public through the OFS route. The offer may give the exchange a valuation of Rs 50,000-55,000 crore, sources said, adding that the IPO itself could be worth about Rs 10,000 crore.

The Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) has been filed with SEBI well ahead of the exchange’s own deadline of January 31, 2017.

NSE’s IPO is being keenly awaited in the market as one of the biggest in recent times. Rival BSE is also in the process of launching its initial share sale of up to Rs 1,500 crore for which it filed draft prospectus with SEBI in September.

Besides, CDSL, promoted by BSE, filed the draft papers yesterday for an initial public offer through which it plans to sell more than 3.5 crore shares.

Currently, MCX is the only listed exchange in the country, but it had come out with an IPO as a standalone commodity exchange much before the merger of Forward Markets Commission (FMC) with SEBI to create a unified capital markets regulator.

Since then, all exchanges have become deemed stock exchanges.

After months of speculation, NSE announced in June its plans to get listed and had said IPO papers would be filed by January 2017.

Amid preparations for the share sale, NSE saw the surprise exit of its Managing Director and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna earlier this month. The exchange has already formed a listing committee to expedite the IPO process, apart from roping in merchant bankers. It has appointed Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, JM Financial Institutional Securities and Kotak Mahindra Capital Company to manage its upcoming IPO.

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