Large foreign investors, including Goldman Sachs, Temasek and Morgan Stanley, have approached the government to expedite the process of listing of top stock exchanges BSE and NSE, where they hold significant stakes.

This group of 17 overseas investors, which also includes Deutsche Boerse, Singapore Exchange, Argonaut PE, SAIF Partners, Tiger Global, Acacia Partners and General Atlantic, has said that the listing of the bourses would help various public sector entities and others who have invested there.

These investors together hold 31.12 per cent in NSE and 25.30 per cent stake in BSE.

In a letter addressed to the Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, they said each of them have “long-term commitment to India” and steps like listing of exchanges can help in the government’s plans to deepen India’s financial markets and make India a global financial hub.

Copies of the letter have also been sent to the Prime Minister’s Office, capital markets regulator SEBI and the two exchanges.

The listing of exchanges have been hanging fire for a long time in India, even as SEBI had put in place a regulatory framework in this regard more than three years ago.

In the meantime, an interesting development has taken place following the merger of commodities regulator FMC with SEBI, which has led to all commodity exchanges becoming securities exchanges.

The largest commodity bourse MCX is already listed and the unified norms have made it a listed stock exchange as well theoretically, even as BSE continues to seek listing.

Since then, BSE has approached SEBI several times with its plans for an IPO, but necessary clearances have not been forthcoming on one or other issue.

Last week also, SEBI Chairman U K Sinha had said that the regulator would “very soon” issue fresh guidelines for listing of the exchanges.

“There are some impediments with respect to the listing norms but we are hoping to resolve them very soon,” Sinha had said, while adding that the sub-committees have submitted their report on listing norms for exchanges and the regulator is now looking into it.

Foreign investors, as also some domestic institutions such as SBI, have been pressing for listing of the bourses for a long time to get an opportunity to monetise their holdings in part or full, but the exchanges’ IPOs continue to get delayed amid lack of regulatory clarity on the matter.

As per existing SEBI norms, exchanges can get listed provided they put in place appropriate mechanisms for tackling conflicts of interest. However, the exchanges are not allowed to list on their own platforms. Still, there remain some regulatory gaps that are coming in way of their listings.

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