India's ICICI Securities jumps on plans to delist by share-swap with ICICI Bank
India's ICICI Securities jumped 15% in heavy trading on Monday on plans to delist from the stock exchange, likely by swapping its shares with those of parent ICICI Bank, which have outperformed those of the brokerage.
While neither company's statement mentioned a share swap, they said their boards will consider a delisting proposal pursuant to a regulation requiring the parent company to "provide for the issue of its equity shares in lieu of cancellation of any equity shares in the delisting subsidiary."
ICICI Bank holds a stake of just under 75% in ICICI Securities, exchange data showed. The companies said they will hold separate board meetings on Thursday to consider the delisting proposal.
ICICI Securities's shares went up to as much as 647 rupees on the day, their highest since April 2022.
But through Friday's close, the Mumbai-based brokerage's stock had gained just over 8% since they debuted in April 2018 at an initial public offering (IPO) price of 520 rupees.
In that same time, ICICI Bank's stock surged 241%, even outperforming the 90% jump in the Nifty financial services index.
The private lender's shares were up 0.4% at 927.25 rupees at 1:40 p.m. IST on Monday.
ICICI Securities's shares were up about 10% at 618.5 rupees, with its trading volume of more than 11.5 million shares on track to make it the company's second-busiest trading session ever.
(Reporting by Biplob Kumar Das and Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Savio D'Souza)