Deutsche Borse CEO Reto Francioni with BSE managing director and CEO Rajnikant Patel (left) and chairman Jagdish Capoor in Mumbai on Wednesday. (Fotocorp)

Mumbai, Feb. 14: In its first major step to demutualise the country’s oldest bourse, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today offloaded 5 per cent of its stake to Deutsche Borse for Rs 189 crore.

The Deutsche Borse picked up the stake at Rs 5,200 per share, BSE managing director and CEO Rajnikant Patel told reporters after signing an agreement with the Frankfurt-based bourse.

Kotak Investment Banking advised BSE on the transaction. Both the entities are, however, not looking at this agreement as a mere financial investment.

The plan is to strengthen their relationship across a broad spectrum of business areas.

Patel said the bourse was open to tie-ups with other stock exchanges as well. He added that the new stakeholder will not have a representation on the BSE board, which will continue to have the same 12 members as of now.

BSE has been mandated to demutualise by May 17 this year, which means 51 per cent of its stake held by 735 brokers have to be offloaded to corporatise it.

With just over 90 days left to complete the entire process, Patel said the remaining 46 per cent was expected to be offloaded to strategic investors, financial institutions and private equity players soon.

He, however, parried questions on whether there would be an IPO to offload a portion of the equity. It is unlikely that there will a public issue, as it cannot be done within the stipulated 90 days.

The May deadline is not likely to be extended as it would require an amendment to the Companies Regulation Act. “We have to comply with the provision of CRA,” said Patel.

Deutsche Borse has one of the biggest derivatives trading platforms — Eurex. It also deals in indices and data vending and has a 3,400-strong team. The company’s global network connects around 2,000 banks, equity trading firms and clearing and settlement firms worldwide.