High promoter holding stocks: promoters hold 70% or more

Companies qualify on promoter holding alone: 70% or more of the company's shares at its latest quarterly shareholding filing. Results are sorted by promoter holding, highest first, and can be narrowed by sector or size. The Promoter change over 3 years column shows the movement in percentage points.

A promoter is the person or group that set up the company or controls it. In SEBI's rules the promoter group also covers close relatives and related companies. A bank, mutual fund, insurer or foreign portfolio investor is not counted in the promoter group only because it holds 20% or more. The promoter percentage is the promoters' shares divided by the company's total shares, with a separate rule for shares that underlie depositary receipts.

Listed companies must keep a minimum public shareholding, the share of the company held by people other than promoters. The general requirement is 25% of the issued shares, set by the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Rules, 1957. That caps a promoter holding at 75% for most listed companies, so a screen at 70% sits just under the ceiling. Very large companies listing with a smaller public offer get years to reach 25%, and the central government can exempt government-controlled companies.

The Pledged column is the promoters' shares pledged or otherwise encumbered, divided by the promoters' shares, times 100. A pledge means the promoters have offered their shares as security for a loan. Both figures come from the same quarterly filing.

A high promoter share leaves a small free float, the shares that can actually trade. The figure says who owns the shares, not how the business is run. Subsidiaries of foreign parents, family groups and government-owned companies all appear here. Debt to equity, borrowings divided by the group's net worth, sits beside it for the company's leverage.