StanChart's unhappy ending pulls the curtains down on much-touted IDR

India's sole IDR ceases to exists next week; unfavourable regime with regards to taxation, trading and fungibility, and high cost of disclosures and listing, spelled death knell for StanC's IDR

On this day a decade ago, John Peace, the then chairman of Standard Chartered Bank (StanC), rang the bell to mark the India listing of the London-headquar­tered lender. After home market London and global financial hub Hong Kong, India was the first turf where the bank opted to list, boosting the image of the country, which had already caught investors' fancy with consistent high growth.

The bank’s successful initial public offering (IPO) stoked optimism that more global companies with a strong India presence would opt to list domestically through Indian Depository Receipts (IDRs). However, StanC’s “unhappy ending”— as a former senior