ICICI Securities stock delisting: Retail stake in Q4 drops to lowest since June 2020

Retail investors sold ICICI Securities Ltd shares in the March quarter, with their combined stake in the broking firm falling to the lowest level since June 2020 levels, as NCLT approved ICICI Securities-ICICI Bank merger and equity shareholders of ICICI Securities eventually gave go ahead to the company’s delisting proposal.

Individual shareholders, owning less than Rs 2 lakh worth shares, held 4.94 per cent stake in ICICI Securities at the March quarter end. This was 92 basis points lower than 5.86 per cent stake they had at the end of December quarter.  Also, this was the first time when their stake in ICICI Securities had fallen below 5 per cent mark since 4.85 per cent for the quarter ended June 30, 2020. They held as high as 8.16 per cent stake in ICICI Securities at the end of March quarer of 2021.

A meeting of equity shareholder of ICICI Securities took place on March 27, where shareholders passed the scheme of arrangement to delist ICICI Securities, following which it will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of ICICI Bank.

A total of 67.82 per cent of public non-institutions voted against the scheme of arrangement but a healthy 83.80 per cent public institutions voted in favour of the resolution. Overall, the proposal received 71.88 per cent favourable votes, which was in excess of the requisite majority of two-thirds of the public shareholders’ votes required under applicable SEBI regulation.

ICICI Bank and ICICI Securities received no adverse observations, no-objection letters regarding the Scheme from NSE and BSE on November 28, 2023 and November 29, 2023 respectively. "It may also be noted that four independent proxy advisory firms recommended voting for the resolution to approve the proposed Scheme to shareholders of both ICICI Bank and ICICI Securities. However, a concerted campaign against the proposal, using social media and involving extensive outreach to retail shareholders was undertaken by those opposed to the proposed scheme," ICICI Securities said.