Hello, my father has had a demat account for the last 25 years with ICICI Direct. He is no longer using it and so wants to close his account and has sold all his shares except in one company, Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd. The bank says I cannot close the account unless all the shares in it are sold. I cannot sell them since the company mentioned above is no longer quoted in the market (likely bankruptcy), so I cannot sell them. Any advice on how I can close this account other than a transfer of shares to another account? I’m avoiding this since it would then be stuck in my account. Any tips?
Thanks in advance.
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You mean icici direct told you that you need to sell all the shares before closing. I always thought the shares are kept in demat account which is separate from the broker or trading account.
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Not sure, but perhaps can convert it to physical format.
If not, and if you only want to close ICICIDirect account due to high fees, you can create account in another broker - ex Finvasia which has no demat AMC, and then ask ICICI to move all demat holdings to target account as part of account closure. There is no fee for transfer + close account.
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I recently closed my father’s ICICIdirect demat and trading account. You have to get the physical DIS slip from the bank by requesting them at branch, fill the necessary details and transfer the shares to another demat (maybe your own demat with Zerodha). The shares that don’t trade on exchange have to be transferred to some other demat else account will not close. After transfer is complete( takes 1 day, maybe 2), you can request the demat closure form at branch, fill and submit it and demat will close in a week. For trading account closure you can go to ICICIdirect account online and request for closure of trading account under self services section. Trading account can only be closed after demat account is closed.
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Thank you for your response. Yes this is true. I got an email regarding the same.
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Thank you for your response.
I’m not sure if that is possible. If the company is not listed anymore, will they help materialize their stocks? Regarding the transfer to another account, like I mentioned, I’m trying to avoid that.
Thank your for your response. I believe then this is the only way- to transfer the shares to another account and then close the demat account. I was trying to aviod that. I am assuming if I need to close my Zerodha account in future I won’t be able to unless I transfer this share to another account during that time? That would be very much challenging.
Try to contact management of Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd, if they are willing to take the shares from you (for any price or free). if they do, then great, if not, you have to manually find a buyer by asking on forums or twitter, if that does not work, then you have to keep the shares, no other way.
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Thanks! I mailed them yesterday, but my hopes are low for a positive response. And like you said, it looks like either a transfer of shares to my account or keeping them looks to be the best option in this case.
I think only thing you can do to close your account is to transfer the shares to another demat account. There is no restriction on whose account it should be(Hopefully)
Lets assume that you go it transferred to Zerodha then it will reflect in your console holdings only not in Kite holdings so you wouldn’t face any problem.
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Think you will need to remat (convert to physical request), if you are not inclined to move it to another account. Once a Remat request is submitted the status in your demat account will also change. You can then proceed to close the account. I know this works since i did this back in 2013-14 to close an account with them, but if they have changed any rules post that, then you might be out of luck with this option.
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Thanks @Ashwin_DSouza! Any idea where would we get the remat request from? Is there a standard form or should we contact the company? Not to bother you, but since 2013-14 is a long time ago 
do you have any contacts or procedures for the same? An online service from the Sebi or DP or whoever incharge for such scenarios would have been much preferable.
No trouble. For REMAT request, you need to contact your DP. They will take all the required documentation and then forward to the registered company address, AND mark your shares as Pending for Remat. I was able to close at this stage.
Request you to confirm with DP once if the account can be closed with the new status, since rules might have changed since 2013-14. If DP dont allow to close account even with the REMAT request, then you are left with only option - just transfer/gift/donate the shares to someone ready to take them Heard some GODs have demat accounts for donation, maybe you can take that route.
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Thanks so much @Ashwin_DSouza! Really appreciate your help. I’ll try to work on this and hopefully be able to sort this out soon. Will update if there is any progress.
Cheers,
