141-year old Bombay Stock Exchange plans public issue

Mumbai: India’s oldest exchange the 141–year-old Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE Ltd) and also the oldest in Asia, has filed a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for an initial public offering on Friday that could garner Rs 1,500 crore for the exchange. This is a major step for this second-biggest exchange after the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and had its legendry birth start on July 9, 1875  under a banyan tree near the Town Hall or Asiatic Library, not far from where the present imposing iconic BSE’s Jeejibhoy Tower stands with its jelly shaped shell at the entrance.

It was started by four Gujarati traders and one Parsi and moved to the now renowned Dalal Street as the brokers tribe increased and took the official name of ‘The Native Share and Stockbrokers Association’, according to Wikipedia.  Despite BSE being the second biggest exchange its index the 30-share Sensex (and not the NSE’s NIFTY 50) is globally recognised and quoted with other global indices.

This is also because it has the largest number of companies, close to 4,000 listed on the exchange though just about 3,000 are actively traded. The market cap of the exchange is around Rs 111 lakh crore. Sources quoted by PTI said the shares could be offered at a price of as high as Rs 500 each in the offer, giving the IPO a size of up to Rs 1,500 crore. Even at the lower end of the band, the  IPO should be worth about Rs 1,200-1,300 crore, they added.