Institutional investors, HNIs and funds have been busy striking off-market deals of unlisted shares of this near monopoly entity, ahead of its eagerly-awaited IPO. Many market players are bullish on this entity due to its fundamentals and growth prospects, but the wait for a big-bang listing may be getting longer than expected. A recent order by a high court based on a PIL case revealed that the crucial permission from the regulator for the IPO had not been “sought or granted”. A little birdie told us that unless all the legal hurdles related to a pending probe are cleared at judicial forums or settled, the IPO is unlikely to take off. Remember we told you about how officials with the regulator want to tread cautiously, as an earlier approval for an IPO in the same segment was followed by enforcement agencies probing irregularities. Interestingly, in a bid to create a more competitive landscape, the regulator recently floated a discussion paper proposing liberalised ownership norms for market infrastructure institutions. These are early days, but could this move possibly impact the ‘monopoly premium’ of the said entity? Well…
