Central Depository Services (India) - RSec IPO Note - Solid, Predictable, Cash Generating Business

Central Depository Services (India) - IPO Note - Solid, Predictable, Cash Generating Business 

Central Depository Services (India) Limited – CDSL - is India’s leading depository in terms of incremental Beneficial Owner (BO) accounts over the last 4 years and by number of registered Depository Participants (DPs). In terms of market share, CDSL stands second to its only competitor i.e. National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) with 44% BO account market share compared to 56% market share enjoyed by the latter as of FY17-end. On revenue market share, CDSL commands 42% share vs. 58% enjoyed by NSDL. 

CDSL offers dematerialisation for equity and preference shares, MF units, debt instruments and G-Secs. As agents of CDSL, the DPs offer demat services to BOs of securities. Registrar & Transfer Agents (RTAs) and Clearing Members (CMs) are other intermediaries involved in the process of issue and transfer of securities of BOs to CDSL’s platform. CDSL also offers facilities to corporates to credit securities to the BO’s demat accounts to give effect to corporate actions i.e. issue of bonus shares, stock-split, and conversion of securities. It also offers KYC services to MFs, electronic holding of policies of several insurance companies and other services like e-voting, e-Locker, National Academic Depository and drafting of succession wills. 

CDSL is coming up with an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of 35.2mn equity shares through 100% book building route. The IPO will open for subscription on Monday, June 19, 2017 and will close on Wednesday, June 21, 2017. The entire issue is an Offer for Sale (OFS) and CDSL will not receive any proceeds from the offer, as 100% of the proceeds will go to parent BSE and its sponsors, all of whom are selling part of their stake to comply with depositories regulations. While ~77% of the IPO proceeds will go to BSE, the balance 23% will go to other sponsors. The offer will constitute 33.7% of the post offer paid-up equity capital of CDSL. The price band for the issue has been fixed at Rs145 to Rs149. At the upper end of the price band, CDSL’s market capitalisation works out at Rs15.6bn, while at the lower end, it is pegged at Rs15.2bn. The shares will be listed on the NSE.

Outlook & Valuation

We believe CDSL is a predictable and profitable business with improving market share and better cost competitiveness, while newer business initiatives are likely to drive growth going forward. The company has a unique business model with no comparable listed peer, which can consistently generate cash and lead to regular dividend payouts. Such a business, we believe could command a PE multiple of ~24-25x. At the IPO price band, the issue comes at a PE multiple of 18.1x FY17 (trailing) earnings, which we believe leaves a lot on the table for investors. Thus, we recommend SUBSCRIBE to the Issue.