new delhi: National Securities Depository Ltd is pressing ahead with its plan for an initial public offering (IPO) that is expected to raise about $400 million, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The proposed listing of India’s oldest depository, which was initially cleared by the market regulator in October last year, is now slated to take place as soon as July, according to the people, who asked not to be named as the information is private, the report said.
“The listing of NSDL, the country’s largest depositary in terms of assets under custody, is being managed by ICICI Securities Ltd., Axis Capital Ltd., HSBC Holdings Plc and IDBI Capital, and will comprise of 50.1 million shares, based on previous stock-exchange statements from the company,” it added.
The share offering is the outcome of an offer for sale by major investors including IDBI Bank Ltd, National Stock Exchange of India Ltd and State Bank of India, and NSDL itself won’t receive any proceeds, according to the earlier statements.
NSDL facilitates the holding and transfer of securities in dematerialised form. Its demat account holders were in more than 99 per cent of pin codes in India and 186 countries across the world, with over 63,000 service centres in FY24, covering every state and Union territory.
The depository cut its IPO size, according to an addendum to its draft papers filed earlier last month. The issue now comprises 5.01 crore shares compared to 5.72 crore shares mentioned in the draft red herring prospectus earlier.
NSDL has been granted an extension by markets regulator Sebi for the listing of its shares until July 31, 2025.
This upcoming listing will make NSDL the country’s second publicly traded depository after Central Depository Services (CDSL), which was listed on the NSE in 2017.
The listing of NSDL is crucial in order to comply with Sebi’s ownership norms. These regulations require that no entity can hold more than 15 per cent of the shareholding in a depository company.