A Non-Resident Indian (NRI) has bought the building in Chennai that housed one of the oldest stock exchanges in India — Madras Stock Exchange — for Rs.16.5 crore. The building is situated at Second Line Beach in George Town.
The exchange will host one last event on Dec. 17, for which all the members and authorized assistants have been invited to share their memories.
“We request all former members and authorized assistants of the Madras Stock Exchange to come and join for the meet and relive and evoke the nostalgia for one last time at the very place of trading hall in Exchange Building,” read the invitation, according to the Times of India. The MSE had 36 sub-brokers/authorized persons and 227 companies were exclusively listed on this stock exchange.
MSE, set up by a group of investors about 80 years ago, was one of the country’s oldest stock exchanges. Constructed on 10,319 sqft of land, the building offers 41,100 sqft of super built-up area across basement and four floors. It shut down in 2015 after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said that all regional stock exchanges would have to have a minimum net worth of Rs 100 crore and annual trading volume of Rs 1,000 crore. The MSE was given two years to comply with the mandate or shut shop, which is what it did.
After it stopped being a stock exchange, the organization was renamed Madras Enterprises Ltd.
“The buyer is an NRI from the Gulf who is investing in the Chennai market. Part sums have been received,” M Amarnath, director, Madras Enterprises, was quoted as saying by the publication. After the signing of the agreement, the payment for which will be done in phases, the organization still has the responsibility of sharing the residual monies with the shareholders.
The organization wanted to sell the building in 2016 but the demonetization move drove real estate prices to the ground. They had expected bids around Rs 25 crore. They had also evaluated the assets and found that the building was valued at Rs 32 crore before November 2016.