In just ten years, how did ESOPs helped an illiquid stock to grow from 1.5 KCrs to 50 KCrs!

A company of just Rs 1,500 cr market cap in 2011 got transformed into a company of an approx. Rs 50,000 cr plus market cap in 2024. By the way, this growth has been sustainable even in the market fall of 2025, as this company has already become a market leader in its industry.

ESOPs were implemented in the year 2011, when the company was listed on BSE only with a single/double-digit daily trade volume. I was solely responsible for designing an ESOP Plan for the Senior Management. As the company started growing, people started realising the value of ESOPs in hand.

The ESOP structure was planned in a way to promote 2 objectives - (i) retention, and (ii) corporate growth. Plan was made simple focusing on appropriate employee selection, vesting period, vesting percentages, vesting conditions, and discount pricing. There were regular employee communications on growth with the 1st session was undertaken by me right after grant. It’s difficult to prove that “ESOP alone” has brought such an exemplary transformation, but ESOP’ role cannot be denied too.

It is a classic case of near 40 times value growth creating a life changing WIN-Win for owners and employees. A 5% equity dilution by Promoters/ investors with a foreseeable ESOP analysis did the things right.