The ₹4,000 crore initial public offering (IPO) of National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) – one of the world’s biggest custodians of electronic securities – has proven to be extremely rewarding for some of India’s top financial institutions that invested early.
Big names like State Bank of India (SBI), IDBI Bank, NSE, HDFC Bank, and Union Bank of India are set to make massive profits as the IPO unlocks huge gains on investments made decades ago at very low prices.
-
SBI, India’s largest lender, is selling 40 lakh shares it bought at just ₹2 each. At the top end of the IPO price band (₹800), this will fetch around ₹320 crore – turning an investment of ₹80 lakh into 399 times the return.
-
IDBI Bank is selling 2.22 crore shares, also bought at ₹2 each, and is likely to make around ₹1,776 crore. That’s a 400x return on its ₹4.44 crore investment.
-
NSE, which had picked up 1.8 crore shares at an average of ₹12.28 per share, will earn around ₹1,418 crore – a return of over 64 times its cost.
-
Union Bank of India, with a smaller stake, had bought 5 lakh shares at ₹5.20 each and now stands to earn ₹40 crore – over 150 times the original investment.
Regulatory rules from SEBI cap any single entity’s ownership in a depository at 15%. Hence, large stakeholders like IDBI Bank (26.1%) and NSE (24%) must reduce their holdings through this IPO.
The public issue, which is a complete Offer for Sale (OFS), will open for public bidding from July 30 to August 1, with anchor investors participating a day earlier on July 29. Shares are likely to be allotted by August 4 and list on stock exchanges by August 6.
As of July 28, NSDL shares are trading at a ₹137 premium in the grey market, implying a possible 17.2% gain on listing day – a sign of strong investor interest.
NSDL also highlighted its dominance in the Indian market in its prospectus. As of March 31, 2025, it holds the top position in the country across several categories, including number of issuers, active instruments, demat value, and assets under custody. It has a much wider network than its competitor CDSL, with 65,391 service centres compared to CDSL’s 18,918.
Financially, NSDL has shown steady growth:
-
Revenue rose from ₹1,021.99 crore in FY23 to ₹1,420.15 crore in FY25.
-
Profit after tax increased from ₹234.81 crore in FY23 to ₹343.12 crore in FY25.
