Welcome to the CDSL Q2 FY 2027 Earnings Conference Call, hosted by HDFC Securities. As a reminder, all participant lines will be on listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. Ladies and gentlemen, please note that CDSL does not provide specific revenue or earnings guidance. Anything said on this call which reflects CDSL's outlook for the future or which could be constituted as forward-looking statements must be reviewed in conjunction with the risks that the company faces. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Amit Chandra from HDFC Securities. Thank you, and over to you.
Yeah, thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of HDFC Securities, we welcome you all to the CDSL Quarter two FY 2027 earnings call. Today, we have with us the management team of CDSL, represented by Mr. Nehal Vora, MD and CEO, Mr. Girish Amesara, CFO, and other senior leaders from the management team. We will start with a brief overview of the quarter by Mr. Nehal Vora, and then we will open up the floor for the question-and-answer session. Thank you, and over to you, Nehal, sir.
First of all, thank you, Amit. A very good afternoon and a warm welcome to everyone joining us today. I hope each of you and your loved ones are safe and healthy. Thank you for joining us to discuss CDSL's financial results for the second quarter ended September 30, 2026. A detailed investor presentation has been uploaded on our website for your reference. I am joined today by the leadership team of the CDSL Group. Let me begin by briefly sharing the broader market context and some of the key developments during the quarter before the CFO takes us through the financial performance in greater detail. During the quarter, India's securities market saw continued activity, particularly in the primary market, even up against a more volatile broader market environment led by real geopolitical issues.
IPO proceeds exceeded $9 billion, or INR 86,500 crore, in the July to September quarter. This is the highest ever period, which has seen about 34 IPOs, the highest in a single month since December 1996. Demat accounts additions also remain significant. The industry added approximately 32.7 lakh accounts in August, the highest monthly addition in seven months. By the end of September, the overall demat account base has reached approximately 24 crore. CDSL continued to account for approximately 80%+ of the industry's demat accounts, with about 19.34 crore accounts by the end of September 2026. We shall be shortly publishing the number of demat accounts for October end on our websites. The IPO surge growth in demat accounts, and the other market developments underline the importance of building capacity ahead of need.
Our continuing investments in technology and people are aimed at ensuring that CDSL remains resilient and equipped to support the evolving scale of the India securities markets while maintaining the dependable service and helping investors navigate both favorable through these challenging market conditions. Further to the appointments of our executive directors on CDSL during the last quarter, we have also continued to strengthen our leadership across two important functions in this quarter. Shri Farokh Patel has been elevated to the role of chief regulatory officer and compliance officer of the company with effect from September 1, 2026. We have also welcomed Shri Kinjal Shah as our chief technology officer with effect from September 22, 2026. We welcome them to their respective roles and look forward to their contribution.
Additionally, a significant and important initiative in which RBI has enabled depositories to include information on bank deposits in the consolidated account statement through the account aggregator system is a step towards providing investors with a more comprehensive view of the financial assets in one place. On the Investor Education and Protection Fund, CDSL continues on its efforts towards further strengthening investor education. As a part of the World Investor Week 2026 and Project Jagrook's campaign theme of Samajh Se Investing Simple , CDSL IPF organized an experience-based learning investor awareness initiative aimed at investors of different demographic groups across media. Its 50 cycle rallies across 12 states and over 45 districts reached around 10,000 participants.
Our partnership with Amar Chitra Katha is gaining popularity, and to sustain its momentum, we also launched a Garden of Prosperity in 12 languages with Amar Chitra Katha and distributed investor education comics to nearly 30,000 + students across 60 schools. I would really encourage all of you to look at all this on the CDSL IPF website for you and your families. As part of the Reimagine Symposium, the registrations are now open for the second edition of a Reimagine Ideathon. Inviting students to propose practical ideas around financial awareness and cyber safety. I would especially request the investors listening today to encourage the young people in, as per your families and other known people to participate in this. Building a more informed and secure market will also require us to look at and see what the next generation expects us to do to shape its future.
The CFO will take you through the financial results for the quarter and half year. The earnings call presentation has been also put out on basically the stock exchange website and is available on the CDSL website, which provides a detailed breakdown of revenue and expenses the last five quarters along with the necessary information. The markets will continue to move through periods of optimism as well as certain amounts of issues which are happening on the geopolitical front. But what matters to CDSL and to the wider ecosystem is the strength of the foundations behind them. For institutions like ours, that means continuing to build infrastructure that is secure, resilient, and continue can be trusted by millions of investors is what our core focus remains.
Our priorities remain unchanged, strengthen the core, prepare for the future through initiatives like various initiatives which basically that with SEBI and other parts of the ecosystem continue to do for us. Invest a lot of time and energy in the investor education initiatives to truly making investors truly self-sufficient. We remain grateful to our regulators, SEBI, RBI, and the Ministry of Finance, and to our depository participants, issuers, investors, market intermediaries, shareholders, and employees for their continued support and trust. With that, I now hand it over to the CFO to take us through the financial performance in great detail. Thank you, and [non-English content]
Thank you, Nehal. Good afternoon, everyone. I will start with the standalone. For the six months ended September 30th, 2026, the total income is achieved at INR 685.21 crore as against INR 602.26 crore for the six months of the previous year. In terms of net profit on a standalone basis for the six months, we achieved at INR 307.79 crore as against INR 279.51 crore for the first half of the previous year. In terms of quarterly numbers, the standalone total income is at INR 358.70 crore as against INR 289.90 crore for the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
The standalone net profit for second quarter is INR 163.34 crore as against INR 127.50 crore for the corresponding quarter of the previous year. On a consolidated basis for six months ended September 30th, the total income is achieved at INR 757.80 crore as against INR 636.53 crore of the first half of the previous year.
The consolidated net profit for the six months ended September 30th is at INR 290.97 crore as against INR 242.34 crore for the previous year. For the second quarter on a consolidated basis, the total income is achieved at INR 117.30 crore as against INR 341.57 crore for the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The net profit on a consolidated basis for second quarter is at INR 173.30 crore as against INR 139.93 crore of the corresponding quarter in the previous year. The other income in standalone financial results include dividend received from subsidiary of INR 39.50 crore, which was received in June quarter, as compared to INR 62 crore received in the similar quarter during the previous year. The said dividend is eliminated on consolidation as that is received from a subsidiary company.
If we consider the standalone profitability without considering the subsidiary dividend, the net profit for six months on a standalone basis at INR 268.29 crore as against INR 217.51 crore for the corresponding first half of the previous year. With this, I will request Sunil to take us through CVL numbers. Thank you, and over to you, Sunil.
Thank you, Girish. Good afternoon, everyone. I am presenting before you the H1 FY 2027 results for CVL. During H1 FY 2027, revenue from operations grew by 20% to INR 99.91 crore as compared to INR 83.52 crore in the previous year. Other income declined by 16% to INR 7.82 crore from INR 9.31 crore in the corresponding period. Consequently, the total income increased by 16% to INR 107.73 crore compared to INR 92.84 crore in the previous year.
Total expenditure increased by 33% to INR 75.81 crore, compared to INR 57.01 crore in H1 FY 2026. Profit before tax moderated by 11% to INR 21.91 crore from INR 35.83 crore in H1 FY 2026. Profit after tax for H1 FY 2027 stood at INR 23.74 crore compared to INR 27.09 crore in H1 2026, representing a decline of 12%. With this, I will open the floor for questions and answers. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question -and -answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We will take our first question from the line of Amit Chandra from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, sir, thanks for the opportunity, and congrats for a very strong set of numbers. My first question is, we are seeing very strong recovery in this quarter, and thanks to the IPO, like revenue in this quarter and the recovery in the online data charges. Just to understand if there is any kind of one-off in the IPO, or is it purely driven by the higher number of IPOs? Also, if you can provide some color in terms of what could be the steady state IPO revenues that we can assume, or the mix between IPO and the corporate action. On the online data, obviously, there has been a recovery. We had the pricing impact. So, is it safe to assume that this is the new base and the pricing impact is behind?
Also, here the growth of 20% quarter-over-quarter is slightly lower than the 30% growth that we have seen in the incremental new accounts. So, has there been any change in terms of fetch versus the newer accounts opening charges that we have in the online data? Thank you.
On the first one, Amit, I think it is the number of IPOs which have come in. I think looking at what terms of the prospectuses which have been filed, we hope that this trend continues. It is not specific to any particular IPO or one-off. It is a general uptick on the number of IPOs which are hitting the market and probably may be expected to hit. Again, that is a forward-looking statement, so we will not be able to comment on that. The important point which I would like to make here is that we continue to invest in our infrastructure, that as the surge happens, and these were series of questions in the past calls that, why are we investing in technology?
It is times like these where we see really the dividend, where when the number of activity goes up, CDSL is able to manage that kind of load, and we will continue to embark on this journey to invest in technology as well as the employees. On the second point, I will ask Sunil to answer on the online charges.
For the online charges, we have seen a higher number of records created and which have been fetched. To a large extent, it has taken care of the pricing impact which was there in the previous, which was introduced from 1st April 2026. I hope that answers your question.
Okay. Any significant change that has happened in the mix of fetch versus create within online? What would be the blended pricing after the pricing change?
After the pricing change, for creation, it has come down to INR 5, and for fetching, it has come down to INR 28. For creation, it was reduced by 75%, and for fetching, it was reduced by 20%.
Okay. And sir, on the expenses part, obviously, there has been a margin expansion because of the top-line growth. But if I see the technology expenses, in the last call, you have said that most of the technological investments are mostly behind in terms of the major upgrades are behind, and maybe the incremental growth in technology would be a bit moderate or on a steady-state basis. Still, the year-over-year growth is still at 38%, 39%. So how to see this in terms of, obviously, you said that you have been investing in technology, but the pace of the investment is still the same, or the major bulk of the investments are behind us?
Again, I don't think I had mentioned that we have What I had mentioned, I clearly remember, is that we continue to invest in technology, because technology is something which continues to evolve. The market conditions continue to evolve. We've seen some record IPOs hitting the markets, and it has, due to the effort of the team and the system planning which has happened, it has gone seamlessly well. We continue to embark on this journey. I don't think we can really sit assured that our technology systems are fine, because there are a lot of innovations which happen, better way of doing things. The market environment is changing very quickly. We continue to have the ear on the ground, and wherever it's required, we continue to invest so that the efficiency improves, the client experience improves.
As more and more people are enticed into hitting markets, we are completely well-prepared in terms of going forward. I don't think we should And anyway, we don't comment on the future. But the principle remains the same that we continue to embark on this journey to ensure that the robustness and the resiliency of the CDSL system remains top-notch and continues to work on that. Thank you.
Okay. And sir, in this quarter, what was the pledge income and the e-voting income, if you can give? Thank you.
I will ask Girish to do.
Margin pledge income was INR 6.19 crore.
And e-voting and e-CAS?
E-voting, e-CAS income was INR 12.77 crore, and e-voting income was INR 22 crore.
Okay, sir. Thank you, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. We will take our next question from the line of Swarnabha Mukherjee from 360 ONE Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations on a great set of numbers. My first question is on the IPO corporate action business. It is fairly understood that IPO income has been very strong this quarter. I just wanted some color from you that, if I were to look at the corporate action part of the business this quarter, how has the growth been? Of course, I think the IPO portfolio-led income would have grown at a much faster pace. But if you could give some indication on how the growth in the corporate action business has been, has it been in line with, say, how the number of companies getting listed incrementally every year? If you can provide some color, that would be very helpful. That is the first question.
Second is, on the KRA revenue part, you mentioned that the volumes have kind of covered up for the pricing part. Two questions there. One, I wanted to understand that the Search API-led pricing that you had mentioned last quarter, how is that faring? Has that also improved this quarter vis-à-vis last quarter? Some details on that. Secondly, sir, the price that you have mentioned just now to the previous participant, just wanted to understand whether that is the rack rate or the blended price. You had mentioned, I think, INR 5 and INR 28 for creation and rate. If you can give some color whether it is a rack rate or blended price, and if it is the rack rate, then if you could please give some indication on the blended price.
The third question, sir, in terms of other expenses, there is a jump on a sequential basis. Just wanted to understand how to read into that. Is that something related to business promotion, or is this like a backing expense to a revenue item like, say, inter-KRA or EAB and e-voting Indian? These are my questions, and if you could provide the data keeping question in terms of what is the unlisted part in the annual issue for charges and the processing fee for that. Thanks.
I will ask Girish to answer the first and third question, and also his follow-on question was that unlisted.
When we look at IPO corporate action income, it is a consolidated income for us. We internally do not monitor as to what would be corporate action revenue, what would be IPO-related revenue. Basically, it is a total revenue set for us, which keep on happening at our end, which is again, basically, largely based on the number of IPOs and the number of subscribers subscribed to that IPO. It is a commingled item, and we do not internally track as to what is corporate action-related revenue and what is IPO-related revenue. Having said that, your last question was on other admin expense, right? Other admin expense, largely, there are certain variable expenses like SMS alert and those kind of revenue expenditure, which are directly linked with the operational activity that happens in the business.
If there is a growth in that business activity, the operational, those expenditure tend to increase. That is the main reason for higher other admin expense compared to previous quarter. I hope I have answered that question.
[inaudible].
The first question on the KRA rack rate and blended rate, the rates which I had indicated are the rack rates. On the blended rates, we do not discuss this in the public domain for obvious reasons. On the KRA side, the other expenses have increased primarily because the interop expenses have increased with the increase in volumes. Point number two is we also do e-sign where you need to do an Aadhaar-based e-KYC first. So there is a charge payable to UIDAI. So with the higher number of e-signs done in this particular quarter, the amount payable to UIDAI has gone up. And thirdly, we have also started doing Aadhaar-based e-KYC separately. So we have now started registering sub-KRA for this facility, and we have seen that particular income also going up.
We also need to pay Aadhaar or UIDAI accordingly for the number of records which we have processed on behalf of the sub-KRAs. And on the search API, the revenue as compared to the first quarter has come down, primarily because since earlier it was free and now it is chargeable. The intermediaries have started fine-tuning their systems, so the number of transactions have also come down. So I hope that answers your question.
Yes, sir. Very clear, sir. If you could also give the split on the unlisted revenue part.
Sure, Girish.
Sure, sir, I will give. So unlisted revenue in terms of issuer fees is INR 87 lakhs, and application processing fees is INR 2.2 crore.
Okay, understood. Very helpful, sir. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Thank you. We will take our next question from the line of Madhukar Ladha from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for taking my question. Two quick ones. One on the IPO and corporate action revenue. You also earn money on KYC that you do in an IPO. What are the charges for that? So per KYC, how much do you get? I am assuming that that is booked in IPO and corporate action. Can you give a split of your in that, how much is the KYC revenue? That will be helpful. Second, can you give me the absolute rack rates? I think you did mention it earlier, but I missed it. Can you give me the absolute, the revised rate for creation and fetch once more? Thanks.
I will ask Girish to answer the first and Sunil to answer the second.
When you say KYC, what I understood is, it is the bureau verification charges that we have to do when anyone applies for an application in an IPO.
[crosstalk] the charge for that is INR 2 per application. With respect to the rack rate, for creation it is INR 5, and for fetch it is INR 28.
Sir, in the INR 102 crores of IPO and corporate action, how much is the verification charge?
We don't give that. It is basically a consolidated number. [crosstalk].
See, basically, Madhukar, what happens is that when any IPO comes out, depending upon the number of times it gets oversubscribed, the value gets derived based on that. It would be very difficult to give a pinpointed answer that this IPO has yielded this revenue. See, totally it is a function of market with respect to how its application is oversubscribed, and then accordingly you get the revenue.
Understood, sir. Okay. Thank you. All the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, would like to remind participants, to ask a question, please press star and one on your phone. Next question is from the line of Lalit Deo from Equirus Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Sir, just one question on the KYC business. One of our competitors has indicated that they have been onboarding brokers for newer KYC applications, and they have been able to add five of the top 10 brokers. Just wanted to understand how is the competitive intensity shaping up in this KYC segment? And yeah, so that's the whole question, sir.
Ask Sunil to answer.
The problem is if he says that he has onboarded, and if I say no, who, when will you actually take? That's the whole thing. So these things happen, and honestly, I can really not comment on this actually. But I think it will reflect in our numbers and the financial what we have reported.
[inaudible].
Lalit, are you through with your question?
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press star and one on your phone now. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Nehal Vora for closing comments. Over to you.
There is one question that has come up.
Yes. It is from Sanketh Godha from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, just two questions. One question is on, you alluded in couple of calls back that we don't have probably rights to give ISIN numbers for the unlisted companies. Just wanted to understand whether there has been any progress on that particular point, so that our unlisted revenue sees a meaningful growth the way we have seen the competition. Secondly, just wanted to understand one more thing is that, sir, pledging income typically looks little lower given MTF book has grown so strong. It's largely flat on a sequential basis, INR 6.2 crores, INR 6.2 crores. Just wanted to understand, the strong growth in margin trade funding book is not benefiting us in growth in the pledging income.
On the first one, it is going through the regulatory supervision, and it's in that process, so I will not comment it, but it is in process of ISIN Ability . On the second one, as the MTF book grows, we have multiple points on terms of where the revenue can grow. We don't have a one-is-to-one correlation. What we present is the overall income which happens. But as we speak, the book of MTF is growing, and these have been significant growth which has happened on this CDSL side. I hope I'm able to answer that question.
Understood, sir. Last, one data keeping, if you can give your impairment cost in the quarter. The second question, sir, is just from any major discount broker who is associated with CDSL, has incrementally started opening accounts with the other, or we still enjoy the exclusive tie-up? Just want to understand from a business development point of view.
On the first one, I will ask Girish to answer, but before that, I will answer the second one. One is we do not comment on any specific individual DPs. As I have said earlier, the important thing is to build the right infrastructure and the value proposition, and then numbers speak for itself. That is for you to take a call. I will ask Girish to answer the first one.
Sanketh, in terms of debtors provision, there is a reversal of INR 1.77 crore.
INR 1.77 crore. Okay, perfect, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Prateek Shah, an individual shareholder. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good day, and firstly, congratulations for the set of numbers. Just wanted to understand from the insurance business side, as we know that CDSL has already tied up in partnership with some of the insurance companies. I mean, you can just give some color on how that business is shaping and how much revenue we have earned in this quarter compared to the previous quarter or compared with the previous year.
We continue to engage with the insurance companies. We have a new MD and CEO who has joined there in terms of the experience, and he is kind of experienced in the industry. It's part of our continuing journey of ensuring people are strengthened in key positions. I'll ask the CFO to answer the second question, revenue.
See, insurance, we have earned a revenue of roughly INR 2 crore in this six months.
C ompared to what we have earned the previous quarter?
I gave this number out for the half year, and in the previous half year, it was almost the same.
Okay. Nehal sir, just a kind of a suggestion that we could start putting this number into our consolidated revenue side, just to understand how this business is shaping. Though its number is very small compared to the other segregated part of revenue, just to understand how this is growing. If you can put this number in the performance.
Yeah, suggestion is taken. We will definitely look at it based on the framework and the practices getting followed by other companies also. Your suggestion is very welcome, and we shall definitely take it on, and we shall look at it if it is feasible to be given.
Yeah. Okay, and all the very best for coming quarter.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Nehal Vora for closing comments. Over to you.
I would like to thank all the people who joined this investor call. Continue to remain safe, and we continue to embark on a journey to ensuring CDSL continues to remain safe, secure. Thank you so much, and all the very best.
Thank you, members of the management. On behalf of HDFC Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.