New Delhi, June 24 -- Private equity firm ChrysCapital, which raised the single-largest sector-agnostic PE fund for India last year, has lined up another partial exit for the Limited Partners (LPs) of its continuation fund with strong gains after providing them a monetisation opportunity last year.
The PE firm had raised $700 million (around Rs 6,121 crore then) in 2024 to retain ownership in the National Stock Exchange (NSE), a portfolio company it backed from its sixth flagship fund that hit final close way back in 2012 and had come to an end of its life cycle. The continuation fund was anchored by US-based HarbourVest Partners, and European firms LGT Capital Partners and Pantheon Ventures.
The PE firm used the fresh capital to buyout the stake held by its Fund VI, which invested in the NSE in 2016. The continuation fund shelled out Rs 5,496 crore ($660 million then) for the transaction.
ChrysCapital held a 3.93% stake in the NSE as of March 31, 2025. It trimmed its stake last year, taking it down to 3.73% as it encashed Rs 1,105 crore ($129 million) via a secondary sale to IIFL and 360 One. It churned out a multiple on invested capital of 3.9x in the deal in just a year, translating into a bonanza for the LPs.
The continuation fund is now looking to further trim its stake in the NSE as part of the stock exchange's planned initial public offering. It may churn out around Rs 1,000-1,100 crore in the process.
The returns in the new tranche would be likely a tad lower than last year as the last traded price of the shares of the bourse was lower than the price at which ChrysCap divested shares last year.
However, the fund's combined realised returns, assuming the issue hits the market later this year, is pegged at 165%, way above the 20% benchmark in rupee terms. In dollar terms, the IRR to date would be 157%, as per VCCircle estimates, more than ten times the 15% benchmark.
Apart from ChrysCapital, Singapore state investment firm Temasek, Canadian pension funds CPPIB and OMERS and private equity firm TA Associates are among the other offshore institutional investors that are selling shares in the proposed NSE IPO.
The ChrysCap fund's remaining stake in the NSE would be worth over Rs 17,400 crore ($1.8 billion).
The continuation fund allowed ChrysCapital to return money to its investors in the sixth fund while also providing an opportunity to new investors to gain exposure to India's largest stock exchange. Investors of Fund VI were also given an option to roll their interest into the continuation fund.
The NSE was likely the final remaining asset in ChrysCapital's Fund VI, which hit its final close in 2012 after raising about $510 million.
PE firms often raise continuation funds to score exits from existing portfolio companies and to provide liquidity to LPs of previous funds. In a similar instance, Samara Capital raised $150 million for a continuation fund three years ago from TR Capital and other investors. This fund then bought Samara's stake in three companies.
Notably, ChrysCapital had received demand for almost $1.5 billion for the continuation fund. Investors from North America, the Middle East and Asia Pacific showed interest in the fund, as did US pension funds as well as global sovereign wealth funds.
Meanwhile, the proposed IPO is expected to value the NSE around Rs 5 trillion, or around $53 billion at current exchange rates, making it the 11th largest company by market value in India.
The IPO filing comes a decade after the NSE first submitted draft documents for a proposed share sale. But this got entangled in corporate governance lapses at the bourse and it faced a long investigation by the stock market regulator. The NSE has since recovered from that setback.
The sharp correction in global capital markets in the second half of FY26 has pulled back the NSE's fortunes, though. Its total income slid 2.4% to Rs 18,713 crore and net profit declined by more than a sixth to Rs 10,371 crore for the year ended March 31, 2026, after rising 17% and 47%, respectively, the previous year.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.