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Goldman-Backed India Bourse May Seek Anchor Investor
India’s National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Ltd., partly owned by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., is considering taking an anchor investor, Chief Executive Officer R. Ramaseshan said.
“We are keeping that option open and we are actively looking at what could be the contribution of an anchor investor,” he said in an interview in Mumbai yesterday. “There’s nothing conclusive at this point in time.”
Buying a stake in a commodity bourse in India, the top user of gold and the second-biggest grower of wheat and rice, will let an investor tap a market where turnover is forecast by the industry regulator to rise 20 percent in the year to March 31 from 77.65 trillion rupees ($1.7 trillion) a year earlier. NYSE Euronext, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Fidelity International are among holders in the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd., the nation’s largest such exchange.
Jaypee Capital Services Ltd., a financial services company in New Delhi, is considering acquiring a stake, Ramaseshan said, adding that the exchange isn’t necessarily talking with Jaypee about it being an anchor investor.
“That issue is wide open at this point of time,” he said.
Jaypee Managing Director Gaurav Arora confirmed talks with the exchange by phone from Delhi. He declined to provide details.
Turnover on commodity bourses in India jumped 57 percent to 24.6 trillion rupees in the quarter ended June 30, the regulator Forward Markets Commission said on its website July 7.
The National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange had a daily average turnover of 27 billion rupees in the three months ended June, up from 22 billion rupees a year ago, Ramaseshan said.
Stakeholders
Goldman Sachs, Intercontinental Exchange Inc. and Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd., India’s biggest refiner, each hold a 4 percent stake in NCDEX, according to the exchange’s website.
Indian rules allows an anchor investor to hold as much as 26 percent in a commodity exchange. Ownership by foreign funds has been capped at 5 percent for a single investor.
The National Stock Exchange of India Ltd., which holds 15 percent in the National Commodity exchange, needs to lower the stake to 5 percent by the year end, according to amended rules published this month by the regulator.
“The National Stock Exchange as a shareholder will have to take a call on how they will go about it,” said Ramaseshan. “ NCDEX as an exchange is watched by others, so I am sure there should be interest,” in the stake, he said.
Life Insurance Corp. of India and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development each own 15 percent of NCDEX. Crisil Ltd., a unit of Standard & Poor’s, and Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd., each hold 12 percent, according to the exchange’s website.
To contact the reporter on this story: Madelene Pearson in Mumbai on mpearson1@bloomberg.net
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