ESDS Software surges over 300% after IPO, boosting India's data-centre rally

Since listing on September 4, ESDS Software Solution Ltd. has surged more than 300%, positioning it among the country’s best-performing recent IPOs. The rally is expected to lift sentiment for other data-centre operators, including Sify Infinit Spaces Ltd., Yotta Data Services Pvt., which runs India’s largest Nvidia AI-chip cluster, and STT Global Data Centres India Pvt. With limited ways for investors to gain exposure to cloud and AI infrastructure, firms such as ESDS, Sterlite Technologies Ltd., and HFCL Ltd. have become de-facto vehicles for the theme, the latter seeing shares rise over 700% this year.

Analyst Kunal Bajaj forecasts ESDS revenue could quadruple to about ₹2,300 crore by the fiscal year ending March 2027, helped by a $1.25 billion agreement with SharonAI Holdings Inc. to deploy 8,000 GPUs in an Australian data centre. The IPO, priced at ₹429 per share, drew bids 136 times the offer and gave the company an enterprise value just 2.1 times its projected FY2028 revenue, far below peer E2E Networks Ltd.’s multiple.