The ₹4,000-crore initial public offering of National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) will open to the public today with a price band of ₹760–₹800 a share. The depository’s issue closes on August 1. Bids can be made for a minimum of 18 equity shares and in multiples of 18 thereafter.
The offer is entirely an offer for sale (OFS) of 5.01 crore shares by existing shareholders including IDBI Bank, SBI, NSE, HDFC Bank and Union Bank of India. Listing is expected on August 6. Since the issue is entirely an OFS, NSDL will not receive any proceeds; the IPO enables early investors to partially exit their holdings.
The offer is being made through the book-building process wherein not more than 50 per cent has been reserved for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) , up to 15 per cent for non-intitutional investos (NIIs) and 35 per cent for retail investors. Further, up to 85,000 shares will be allocated on a proportionate basis to the eligible employees applying under the employee quota.
The National Securities Depository Ltd. (NSDL) mobilised over ₹1,201 crore from institutional investors on Tuesday, as part of IPO exercise. According to the circular, the company has allotted over 1.5 crore equity shares to 61 funds at ₹800 apiece.
This anchor portion witnessed participation from domestic and foreign institutional investors, including Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), Smallcap World Fund Inc, SBI Mutual Fund (MF), Fidelity Funds and Nippon India MF, according to a circular uploaded on the BSE’s website. SBI Life Insurance Company and HDFC Life Insurance Company, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Ashoka WhiteOak India Opportunities Fund, ICICI Prudential MF and HDFC MF are also among the investors. Of these, LIC was the largest investor, picking up nearly 18 lakh shares, amounting to 11.99 per cent of the total anchor book, for ₹144 crore.
NSDL is coming out with IPO mainly to comply with SEBI’s ownership norms. SEBI regulations require that no entity can hold more than 15 per cent of the shareholding in a depository company. NSDL’s principal shareholders, IDBI Bank and the NSE, are required to reduce their stake in the company, as they hold 26.10 per cent and and 24 per cent stake respectively.
NSDL financial and business
For FY25, NSDL reported a 12.41 per cent y-o-y increase in total income to ₹1,535.18 crore and a 24.57 per cent jump in net profit to ₹343.12 crore. The company reported a healthy EBITDA margin of 32 per cent and Return on Net Worth (RoNW) of 17.11 per cent.
As of June 30, 2025, NSDL reports that it manages ₹510.91 lakh crore in assets under custody, serves over 4 crore demat accounts through 289 depository participants, and operates 65,983 service centres nationwide.
NSDL, established in 1996, is India’s first and largest central securities depository, and a critical infrastructure institution for electronic securities settlement and custody in the capital markets.
As part of its depository business, NSDL operates a centralised digital book-keeping system that facilitates the holders of securities to hold and transfer their securities in electronic form and enables settlement solutions in an efficient and cost-effective manner. It also facilitates and maintains complete records of the ownership of securities held in dematerialised form with it on behalf of the issuer entity.
As of March 31, 2025, it is the largest depository in India in terms of number of issuers, number of active instruments, market share in demat value of settlement volume and value of assets held under custody, as per Crisil report.
Published on July 30, 2025
