India reduces minimum public share float, paving way for NSE, Jio listings

India has reduced the proportion of shares large companies must sell when listing on the stock exchange, paving the ​way for initial public offerings by the National Stock ‌Exchange and Reliance Jio. 

The regulator last year proposed to halve the minimum amount of shares large companies had to offer in their IPOs, allowing ​those valued at above 5 trillion rupees ($57 billion) after ​listing to sell just 2.5% of their paid-up capital. ??This has now been formally notified by the government, bringing ​it into force. The changes were part of rules released late on ​Friday. Details of the changes are below:

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  At least 2.5% of each class of equity shares can be offered to the public.
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  A mandatory glide path ​has been put in place to reach a 25% public ​shareholding. Companies with a public shareholding of less than 15% at listing ‌will ??have 5 years to reach 15% and 10 years to reach 25%.
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  If the public float is more than 15% at listing, the company will have 5 years to reach 25%.
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  For companies ​with a market ​capitalisation of between ??1 trillion rupees and 5 trillion rupees, the minimum public float will be set at ​2.75%.
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  For companies with a market capitalisation of between ​500 billion ??rupees and 1 trillion rupees, the minimum public float is set at 8%.
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  Other provisions include a condition that if a company ??with a ​class of equity shares with superior ​voting rights is listing ordinary shares, it must also mandatorily list the shares ​having superior voting rights.