Quick Heal soars 36% in 6 days after Sequoia Capital offloads entire stake

Shares of global cybersecurity solutions provider Quick Heal Technologies hit an over two year high at Rs 319, as they rallied 12 per cent on the BSE in Friday’s intra-day trade. Since April, the stock price of Quick Heal has more-than-doubled or zoomed 140 per cent.

The stock was trading at its highest level since August 2021. It had hit a record high of Rs 404 on January 11, 2018. In past six trading days, the stock of software products company has surged 36 per cent after foreign company Sequoia Capital sold its entire 3.4 per cent stake in Quick Heal via open market.

As per the reports and Bulk/Block deals data on NSE and BSE, Sequoia Capital exited Quick Heal Technologies by offloading its entire stake of 3.4 percent.

On September 28, Sequoia Capital had sold a total 1.78 million equity shares worth of Rs 42.86 crore via open market. The foreign company sold 1.36 million shares in BSE and 425,000 shares on the NSE at an average price of Rs 240, the exchanges data shows.

Meanwhile, Carnelian Asset Advisors Private Limited bought 750,000 shares at price of Rs 240, data shows.

Sequoia Capital India Investment Holdings III held 1.785 million shares or 3.37 per cent stake in Quick Heal at the end of June quarter, the shareholding pattern data shows.

Quick Heal is engaged into providing IT security solutions to consumers, small businesses and Government establishments and Corporate houses.

As per the Union Budget 2023-24, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has been allocated a sum of Rs 625 crore, to improve the country’s cybersecurity infrastructure.

A joint study by PwC India and DSCI revealed that the cybersecurity market in India, is projected to increase from $ 1.97 billion in 2019 to $ 3.05 billion by 2022, with a CAGR of 15.3 per cent. The study identified Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI), IT, and Government as the top three sectors in India with the largest market share in cybersecurity expenditure.

However, the predicted growth of the cybersecurity market may be underestimated in light of the Covid-19 pandemic if the digital economy experiences a boom in the post-pandemic era. The demand for cybersecurity solutions in India is driven by the country’s thriving digital economy, which is a priority under the nation’s Digital India initiative, Quick Heal said in its FY23 annual report.