Even as India’s oldest stock exchange, Bombay Stock Exchange, was courting investors via an initial public offer, its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Ashishkumar Chauhan, was interviewing for the top job at rival and market leader National Stock Exchange.
Two officials, very close to the developments, have told BloombergQuint that Chauhan interviewed for the position of managing director and Chief Executive Officer of NSE in January, around the same time as BSE’s shares went on sale to the public. The BSE IPO opened on 23 January and closed on 25 January with an oversubscription of approximately 52 times. But investors lining up to buy BSE shares did not know that the exchange’s top leader may have been seeking to change sides.
One of the officials cited above said, on condition of anonymity, that Chauhan informed Sudhakar Rao, chairman of the BSE board of directors, on 31 January. Rao then informed the other board members. But so far, no public disclosure has been made to shareholders, old or new.
Neither Rao nor Chauhan nor the BSE media communications team commented on the matter, despite repeated efforts by BloombergQuint over the past three weeks. Dharmesh Mehta, managing director of Axis Capital, one of the bankers to the BSE IPO said he would not comment on speculative news.
The NSE Back Story
In the last three months both exchanges have been in the news. BSE for its initial public offer, the first by a stock exchange in India, and NSE for the sudden resignation of its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Chitra Ramkrishna. NSE too is in the process of going public and listing its shares.
Ramkrishna resigned for what she cited as ‘personal issues’ but as BloombergQuint had reported then, her departure was more likely prompted by governance issues. The timing was awkward too – the exchange was weeks away from filing its draft red herring prospectus.
Subsequent to Ramkrishna’s departure, on 3 December, the NSE board set up a four-member selection committee to identify a candidate for the top position. The selection committee issued an advertisement seeking applications before midnight of 11 January. Thereafter the committee interviewed select candidates and the NSE board is expected to announce its decision very soon, maybe even today as indicated by officials close to the process.
The NSE IPO will proceed only after a new managing director and chief executive officer is appointed.
Read the full story on BloombergQuint.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)