Quest Capital Markets is an investment engine inside the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group - it was acquired by the group in 2021 from its founding family and renamed, but its approach has been consistent: run a large, long-term equity portfolio that earns dividends and fair-value gains, trade securities opportunistically alongside it, and lend when the terms are right, all while carrying zero external debt. The company is an RBI-registered non-banking financial company with only three permanent employees, and it operates as a capital-market-focused NBFC that channels its own capital rather than taking deposits or borrowing from the market.
Business segments
Three engines, all running on the same pool of owned capital - a strategic equity portfolio that anchors the balance sheet, a trading desk that turns market movements into income, and a lending book that is deployed when spreads are attractive.
1. Strategic equity portfolio: the permanent capital base
A concentrated set of long-term holdings in group and non-group companies, carried at fair value through other comprehensive income, that generates dividend income and balance-sheet strength without the volatility of a trading book.
- Built to hold, not to trade - the company has elected to measure its equity investments at fair value through other comprehensive income, which means price changes flow through reserves rather than profit and loss, reflecting a deliberate long-term orientation.
- Concentrated in group anchors - as of March 2025, the three largest quoted holdings were CESC Limited (about Rs. 447 crore), Saregama India Limited (about Rs. 478 crore), and PCBL Chemical Limited (about Rs. 311 crore), all RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group companies where the firm is part of the promoter group.
- A stake in India's largest exchange - the portfolio includes 2,25,000 unquoted shares of the National Stock Exchange of India, valued at roughly Rs. 38 crore, a position that has grown from 20,000 shares a year earlier.
- Mutual funds for liquidity - alongside equities, the company holds liquid and short-duration debt mutual fund schemes (about Rs. 25 crore as of March 2025), which can be redeemed quickly if cash is needed for trading or lending.
- Dividends are the visible return - dividend income is recognised when the right to receive it is established, providing a recurring cash stream from an otherwise unrealised portfolio.
2. Trading and dealing in securities: the opportunistic income stream
A mark-to-market trading book that buys and sells listed equities and equity-linked instruments, capturing short-term price moves with inventory carried at fair value through profit and loss.
- Separate books, separate treatment - unlike the strategic portfolio, trading positions are fair-valued through the profit and loss account, so every price swing hits reported earnings directly.
- Inventory kept deliberately light - the trading stock on the balance sheet was Rs. 10 lakh as of March 2024, unchanged from the prior year, suggesting the desk runs with minimal overnight risk.
- Revenue from sale, not just revaluation - the company earns income from the actual sale of shares and securities at transaction prices, alongside fair-value changes on whatever remains in the trading book at period-end.
3. Lending operations: the flexible credit engine
Unsecured loans to corporate borrowers, priced at or above market rates, that the company dials up or down depending on where it sees risk-adjusted returns relative to its other uses of capital.
- Corporate-only, unsecured - all loans are made to body corporates in the private sector within India, with no collateral backing, which means credit assessment is the only protection.
- Priced at market or better - interest rates are set at no less than the prevailing market rate, and interest income is accrued using the effective interest rate method.
- A book that can go to zero - the loan portfolio has swung from over Rs. 63 crore in March 2023 to Rs. 42.6 crore a year later, and then to nil by March 2025, showing that lending is entirely opportunistic rather than a structural commitment.
- Clean credit record - even when loans were outstanding, repayments were regular with no overdue amounts, and the company had no non-performing assets as of the latest year.
Group structure and partners
The company is a controlled affiliate of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, with no subsidiaries of its own - a deliberate simplification from an earlier structure that once included commodity and securities subsidiaries.
- Parent and promoter - Lebnitze Real Estates Private Limited, controlled by Mr Sanjiv Goenka, holds 71.25% of the equity and acquired control in March 2021 by buying 59.69% from the founding Khandelwal family at Rs. 200 per share, followed by a mandatory open offer.
- No subsidiaries left - the company previously had a subsidiary (BNK Commodities Pvt. Ltd.) and an associate (BNK Securities Pvt. Ltd.), but sold both by early 2021, and now operates as a standalone entity with no subsidiaries, associates, or joint ventures.
- Group transaction network - related-party transactions occur with entities under common control including PCBL Chemical, Saregama India, CESC, Spencer's Retail, and several real-estate and trading firms, and the company has participated in group capital raises such as subscribing to PCBL warrants.
- Single exchange listing - the equity shares were voluntarily delisted from the Calcutta Stock Exchange in March 2024 after years of no trading, and now trade solely on the BSE.