Shares of the National Securities Depository Ltd. have risen nearly 30% since early May as demand for the stock saw renewed interest in the unlisted market.
Three brokers NDTV Profit spoke to said that the stock that was trading at around Rs 960-990 by April-end, has now jumped to a maximum of Rs 1,250 apiece.
Lot sizes for NSDL vary from broker to broker, but usually a minimum of 50 shares make up one lot, the brokers of unlisted shares said. This means that at current rates, one lot of NSDL shares can cost about Rs 62,500.
Compared to NSDL’s 30% surge, India’s benchmark Nifty 50 index has only risen about 3% over the same period.
Trigger For The Surge
From April 30, NSDL began settling trades of its unlisted shares via its designated depository Central Depository Services (India) Ltd., similar to what NSE did in March.
“Effective from the said date, the shares of the company can be transferred through the Delivery Instruction Slip mechanism and the existing process of submitting share transfer application under Stage I and Stage II process, shall be discontinued,” NSDL had said in a statement.
The move essentially scraps the need for buyers to get approvals from the MII and the market regulator for their transactions, thus drastically shortened the process of buying or selling the depository’s shares, explained Abhay Doshi, co-founder of UnlistedArena.com.
“Before the unfreezing, it would take around six months for a trade to be completed. Now, it only takes one or two days,” he explained.
The faster settlement of trades has brought in increased demand, as was the case with NSE, he said. One should note that NSE holds a 24% stake in NSDL as of March-end.
Doshi also said that the uptick in NSDL shares is likely following the run-up in NSE shares, which have rallied nearly 47% in the same period as the progress for its market debut picks pace.
In May, NSDL also moved a step closer to its initial public offering. The depository filed an addendum to its draft red herring prospectus with SEBI. As per the updated filing, the depository has trimmed the size of its offer, now comprising 50.15 million shares, down from the previously proposed 57.26 million.
People privy to the development had told NDTV Profit back then that the IPO was likely to be launched in an expedited manner.
Earlier, SEBI had allowed time till the end of July to the depository to launch its highly anticipated IPO worth Rs 3,000 crore. The IPO, originally approved in October last year, will include only an offer for sale.
This means that at current pricing and capital structure, an IPO can value NSDL at around Rs 25,000 crore.
As a market infrastructure institution, NSDL requires additional approvals apart from the clearance to its DRHP before launching the IPO.
NSDL’s competitor, Central Depository Services Ltd., went public in 2017 and has a market capitalisation of Rs 37,139 crore.
NSDL Shareholding Pattern
As of March-end, NSDL has no promoter or promoter group. The company has 795 public shareholders with IDBI Bank and NSE holding 26.1% and 24% stake respectively.
Banks collectively hold over 59% stake in the depository. Other than IDBI Bank’s 26.1%, HDFC Bank holds 7.9%, with Deutsche Bank and SBI holding another 5% each. Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC, Union Bank of India, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Axis Bank also hold NSDL shares.
Foreign ownership of NSDL is currently capped at 49%, with 23.2% being utilised.
NSDL Q4FY25 (Consolidated, Quarter-On-Quarter)
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Revenue flat at Rs 364 crore versus Rs 363 crore.
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EBITDA flat at Rs 91.2 crore versus Rs 90.9 crore.
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EBITDA margin flat at 25.1% versus 25.1%.
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Net profit fell 3% to Rs 83.3 crore from Rs 85.8 crore.
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