India’s BSE Said to File Initial Share Sale Papers in Few Days

(Bloomberg) -- The BSE Ltd., Asia’s oldest stock exchange, will file a draft document for an initial share sale with the regulator in a few days, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Singapore Exchange Ltd. has offered its entire 5 percent stake in the bourse, the people said. Other shareholders seeking an exit deposited 30 million shares in an escrow account by Aug. 22, the last day for tendering, the people said.

SGX will evaluate its stake “as with any of its investments, as to whether it continues to fit our priorities,” spokeswoman Leela Pandit said in an e-mail. BSE spokesman Yatin Padia declined to comment on the filing of the draft papers, which was reported by the Press Trust of India late Wednesday.

BSE, which is majority owned by member brokers, has hired banks including Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd., Axis Capital Ltd. and Jefferies Group and Nomura Holdings Inc. to sell as much as 30 percent to the public next year. Deutsche Boerse AG is unlikely to raise its 5 percent stake in BSE before the IPO, people familiar with the matter said last month.

BSE accounts for about 20 percent of cash equity trading in India. The exchange’s upgraded platform from Deutsche Boerse has helped it gain market share from rival National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. India in July changed the law to allow foreign bourses to own as much as 15 percent of equity exchanges.

--With assistance from Andrea Tan To contact the reporter on this story: Santanu Chakraborty in Mumbai at schakrabor11@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeff Sutherland at jsutherlan13@bloomberg.net, Ravil Shirodkar, Andrew Janes