$40 trillion M-Cap! What Ashishkumar Chauhan says about the opportunity in India and the NSE IPO

Ashishkumar Chauhan, managing director and CEO of NSE, said on Saturday there were some issues in the stock market and that market regulator Sebi had concerns, but added that its stock market was trying to meet Sebi’s expectations as the number of stock investors dropped Doubling or tripling looks ahead of the current 7.5 crore mark.

“Whatever trust Sebi needs in terms of NSE processes, procedures, technology and intent, the day Sebi feels more comfortable, it will urge us to move on and we will commit to the NSE Apply for listing,” he said on BTIndia @100.

Once Sebi approval arrives, the IPO process is fairly mechanical and shouldn’t take more than three to six months, Chauhan said, noting that he’s overseen many IPOs in his career, including BSE’s.

“As soon as Sebi feels comfortable and asks us to apply for an IPO, we will apply. Once approved, the IPO process will take a maximum of three to six months,” he said, adding that listing a company improves corporate governance because investors keep asking tough questions.

Chauhan said the NSE IPO is the second most popular inquiry he receives, after “Where is Nifty headed next year?”.

Speaking at BTIndia@100, Chauhan added that the market capitalization of the Indian stock market has increased more than 80 times in rupee terms since 1994. He also added that the market value of listed companies in dollars has increased from $120 to $3.7 trillion today. In 1994, the figure was $1.5 billion, a more than 30-fold increase over the same period corresponds.

“The stock markets have helped create jobs and wealth in India,” Chauhan said, adding that 20 to 50 lakh people were investing in the stock market at the time. Today, 7.5 million unique PAN numbers are registered with NSE.

He further said that every third household is directly or indirectly linked to markets. There is no country in the world other than India with per capita income as low as US$2,400 and such a market, he said.

“In fact, there is no country with a per capita income of $20,000 that has a market like India,” Chauhan said, if you have to practice religion, you should have money. For this reason, despite all the importance attached to the banking system, the stock markets are at least one and a half times the assets of the entire banking system.

Chauhan added that India has a huge growth opportunity over the next 25 years. On the conservative side, the market valuation of companies listed in India can easily reach $20 trillion going forward. At the same time, there are chances of India’s m-cap hitting $40 trillion.