NSDL IPO turns early bets into goldmine for SBI, NSE, HDFC Bank

NSDL's revenue from operations grew steadily 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.

The Rs 4,000 crore initial public offering of National Securities Depository - one of the world's largest holders of investors' securities in electronic form - has turned out to be a multibagger for some of India’s top financial institutions.

Shareholders State Bank of India, IDBI Bank, the National Stock Exchange (NSE), HDFC Bank, and others are sitting on significant gains as the IPO is expected to unlock staggering returns on investments made decades ago at extremely low valuations.

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Largest lender SBI, for instance, is selling 40 lakh shares, originally bought at just Rs 2 each. At the upper end of the price band of Rs 800 per share, that translates to Rs 320 crore in proceeds on an initial investment of merely Rs 80 lakh, a return of nearly 399 times.

IDBI Bank is set to make an even bigger haul, offloading 2.22 crore shares acquired at Rs 2 per share, which will result in the lender raking in around Rs 1,776 crore, turning a modest Rs 4.44 crore outlay into a massive windfall.

NSE, another early backer, is also cashing in, selling 1.8 crore shares acquired at an average cost of Rs 12.28 apiece. The sale is expected to fetch around Rs 1,418 crore, an estimated return of over 64 times.

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SUUTI - the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India - will earn around Rs 273 crore by selling 34.15 lakh shares bought at Rs 2. HDFC Bank, which entered at a relatively higher average price of Rs 108.29 per share, will make strong gains of nearly 638 percent, offloading 20.1 lakh shares.

Union Bank of India, with a smaller stake, had picked up 5 lakh shares at Rs 5.20 per share, which are now set to bring in Rs 40 crore for the lender, at more than 150 times the initial investment.

According to regulatory norms under SEBI's Depositories and Participants Regulations, no shareholder can hold more than 15 percent in a depository. That means entities like IDBI Bank (26.1 percent) and NSE (24 percent) are required to trim their stakes.

Read More: Engaging with new-age brokers to address smaller demat market share: NSDL CEO Vijay Chandok

The IPO, entirely an offer-for-sale (OFS), opens for public subscription on July 30 and closes on August 1, with anchor investors bidding a day earlier on July 29. Allotment is likely on August 4, and shares are expected to debut on the bourses on August 6.

As of July 28, NSDL's shares are commanding a grey market premium of Rs 137 over the IPO price, suggesting a potential 17.2 percent pop on debut. The grey market premium refers to the unofficial price at which shares of an upcoming IPO are traded before their official listing on a stock exchange. It reflects the market's expectation of the stock's listing price and can be an indicator of investor sentiment and demand for the IPO.

"As of March 31, 2025, we are the largest depository in India in terms of the number of issuers, the number of active instruments, market share in demat value of settlement volume and value of assets held under custody. Further, as of March 31, 2025, we have a network of 65,391 depository participants’ service centres as compared to 18,918 such centres with CDSL," NSDL's RHP says.

As for financials, NSDL's revenue from operations grew steadily 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 profit after tax also showed consistent improvement, rising from Rs 234.81 crore in FY23 to Rs 275.44 crore in FY24, and touching Rs 343.12 crore in FY25.

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