Nykaa Under ESOP Allots Shares Worth INR 32 Lakh

Nykaa, a significant player in the beauty and fashion industry, has distributed 17,010 equity shares through its employee stock option plans (ESOP). The company stated in an exchange filing on 21 April that the equity shares were distributed in accordance with the employees' execution of vested stock options under ESOP programmes. The allotment is valued at more than INR 32.3 lakh based on Nykaa's starting price of INR 190 per share.

Financial Outlook and Ongoing Developments at Nykaa

Nihir Parikh, the CEO of Nykaa Fashion, resigned in December 2024, citing personal obligations, marking another high-level departure from the company. In terms of finances, Nykaa's consolidated net profit increased 51% from INR 17.5 Cr in the same period last year to INR 26.4 Cr in Q3 FY25. Operational revenue increased 26.7% from INR 1,788.8 Cr in Q3 FY24 to INR 2,267.2 Cr in the reviewed quarter. Broker JM Financial kept its "BUY" recommendation on the stock due to the company's good quarterly performance, pointing to its capacity to generate high growth in an environment of low demand. In the meanwhile, Bernstein kept its "market-perform" rating on the company, although anticipating that the margin will progressively grow as a result of ongoing investments and an improvement in profitability in its B2B and fashion divisions. Nykaa has also been working on offering 10-minute delivery on a few cities' SKUs in response to the growing popularity of rapid commerce.

In March, 1.01 Lakh Equity Shares were Allotted in Another ESOP

In March 2025, Nykaa had distributed 101,350 equity shares through its employee stock option plans (ESOP). According to the filing, the equity shares that were so assigned will rank on an equal footing with the company's current equity shares in every way. This comes three weeks after 90,500 equity shares were distributed under ESOP plans by the company led by Falguni Nayar. It had already distributed 56,750 stock shares in January.

Current ESOP Scenario in India

According to a 2024 survey of 160 companies, 78% of them offered employee stock option plans (ESOPs) to their staff, a considerable increase from 59% in 2021. This indicates that ESOPs are becoming more and more popular among startup owners. More firms are now offering ESOPs to all employees, not only senior management, according to a survey done by Saison Capital, XA Network, and Carta. Compared to one in four in 2021, one in three firms now provides these plans to all employees.

Furthermore, the median ESOP pool size grew from 9% in 2021 to 12.6% in 2024, and 90% of founders now talk about ESOPs with candidates during interviews or job offers, up from 75% in 2021. Additionally, the reasons for providing ESOPs have changed; in 2024, 40% of founders cited cost reductions, up from 28% in 2021.