India’s oldest and most trusted depository is finally heading to Dalal Street. The National Securities Depository (NSDL) will open its Rs 4,011.60 crore initial public offering (IPO) on Tuesday, July 30, bringing to the market one of the most anticipated listings of the year.
It is also interesting to note that it is the third-largest IPO of the year, after HDB Financial’s issue that opened on June 25 and Hexaware Technologies’ IPO, which began bidding on February 12.
Now coming to NSDL, the entire issue being an Offer for Sale (OFS), the question remains – should retail investors jump in? Let’s take a look at the key details of the issue ahead of its opening tomorrow-
NSDL IPO: Grey Market Premium (GMP)
As of July 29, NSDL’s IPO is commanding a grey market premium of Rs 135, suggesting a potential listing gain of around 17%. GMPs are unofficial and can fluctuate.
NSDL IPO: Key IPO of the issue
The NSDL IPO will remain open for subscription from July 30 to August 1. The price band of the issue is set between the range of Rs 760 to Rs 800 per equity share.
Investors can bid in lots of 18 shares, meaning the minimum investment at the upper end would be Rs 14,400.
The listing is expected on August 5, and the registrar for the issue is Link Intime India Pvt Ltd.
Notably, this IPO is completely an OFS, where no new shares are being issued. Instead, existing shareholders including big names like SBI, NSE, IDBI Bank, and HDFC Bank are offloading part of their long-held stakes.
Why are big institutions selling their stake?
The listing is partly regulatory driven. As per SEBI norms, no single shareholder can hold more than 15% in a depository. Currently, players like IDBI Bank (26.1%) and NSE (24%) exceed this limit and are trimming their stakes to comply.
But what is more is the returns these early investors are set to book. For example, SBI, which originally bought shares at Rs 2 each, will earn around Rs 320 crore by selling 40 lakh shares, nearly 399 times its original investment.
IDBI Bank will rake in Rs 1,776 crore on shares purchased for just Rs 4.44 crore, and NSE is also sitting on returns of over 60 returns.
Financial performance of NSDL
NSDL’s revenue from operations increased from Rs 1,021.99 crore in FY23 to Rs 1,268.24 crore in FY24, and further to Rs 1,420.15 crore in FY25. Its net profit also grew decently, reaching Rs 343.12 crore in FY25, up from Rs 234.81 crore in FY23.
Brokerages view on NSDL IPO
“At the upper price band company is valuing at P/E of 46.6x to its FY25 earnings, and market cap of Rs 1,60,000 million with Return on net worth of 17.1% post issue of equity shares. We believe that the IPO is fairly priced and recommend a “Subscribe” rating to the IPO,” said Anand Rathi on NSDL IPO.