Ashok Leyland hits new high

Shares of commercial vehicle major Ashok Leyland jumped about 5% to a fresh 52-week high of Rs.157.40 on the BSE, driven by strong volume and outperformance versus a firm broader market, after the group moved a step closer to restructuring its vehicle-finance business through a merger of Hinduja Leyland Finance with NDL Ventures

The scheme envisages the merger by absorption of Hinduja Leyland Finance Limited, Ashok Leyland’s material NBFC subsidiary, into NDL Ventures Limited (formerly NXTDIGITAL), with an appointed date of April 1, 2026, subject to approvals from SEBI, stock exchanges, NCLT and the respective shareholders and creditors.

Under the agreed share-swap, shareholders of Hinduja Leyland Finance will receive 25 fully paid equity shares of NDL Ventures (face value Rs.10) for every 10 shares held in the finance company.

Strategically, the Street is reading this as a value-unlocking and capital-structuring move: a large, established vehicle-finance franchise with FY25 income of about Rs.4,473 crore and net worth above Rs.7,200 crore will effectively be housed in a much smaller listed platform that has only recently pivoted to financial services, allowing clearer market discovery for the NBFC business while de-linking regulatory capital demands from Ashok Leyland’s manufacturing balance sheet over time.