Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), the leading commodity exchange, has got the market regulator Sebi's nod for its IPO that was twice delayed in the last five years. It had first filed its prospectus for listing in 2006 and then in 2008, but could not complete the process.
It would be the first bourse in the country to be listed. The Sebi nod for the IPO, which came on Friday, is valid for 12 months and the exchange has been asked to file the offer document with stock exchanges and registrar of companies, a company spokesperson said. MCX had filed the draft IPO prospectus with Sebi in March 2011 through which some of its existing shareholders together intend to sell about 64.3 lakh shares (or 12.6% of the company's equity) of a face value of Rs 10.
The pricing for the issue will be decided through the book-building process. {add} Financial Technologies (FTIL), State Bank of India, GLG Financials Fund, Alexandra Mauritius, Corporation Bank, ICICI Lombard General Insurance and Bank of Baroda are the selling shareholders in the offer. FTIL, a shareholder-promoter of MCX, currently holds 31% in the bourse and post offer this will come down to 26%. Among MCX's other shareholders are NYSE Euronext, Fidelity, Merrill Lynch and Nabard.
MCX is the sixth largest commodity exchange in the world in terms of number of futures contracts traded. In silver, it the exchange where most contracts are traded while in gold futures it ranks second in the world. At present bourse in countries like US, Hong Kong, UK, Singapore, Japan and Australia are listed.
The offer, which has an IPO grade of 5 out of 5 from Crisil, will be managed by Edelweiss Capital, Citigroup Global Markets India and Morgan Stanley India.
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