The rule you can't ignore
Unlisted shares are not liquid. Even the most-traded unlisted names in India see a few dozen meaningful trades a month, vs tens of thousands per second on NSE. Your exit window is:
- 0–3 months: liquid names (NSE, NSDL, top 5 unicorns) where a buyer is usually queued
- 3–12 months: second-tier unicorns, profitable blue-chips
- 12–36 months: thinly traded names — you're effectively waiting for an IPO
What determines liquidity
- Visibility: Names with grey-market discovery (NSE, HDFC Securities, etc.) are always easier.
- Quality of seller pool: Companies with large ESOP pools (for example Swiggy, Razorpay pre-listing) had continuous seller-side supply.
- Clarity on IPO timing: A filed DRHP turbo-charges buyer interest.
- Price sensitivity: If you insist on a 5% above market price, liquidity drops to near zero even on liquid names.
How to price liquidity risk
We recommend adding an explicit liquidity discount to your target return: 3–5% per year for top-tier names, 8–12% per year for second-tier. If a listed peer trades at 8× revenue, a thin-liquidity private equivalent should trade at 5–6× to compensate.
When you hit a cash crunch
Polemarch runs an active secondary book. If you need to exit:
- 1Flag the position in your dashboard.
- 2We surface it to a pool of pre-KYC'd Polemarch buyers.
- 3Typical time to fill a well-priced offer: 2–10 working days for liquid names, longer otherwise.
We will never push a below-market liquidation — if the offer doesn't fill at your floor, nothing happens.
The honest recommendation
Don't buy unlisted shares with money you need in 6 months. The long-term return profile is excellent, but holding power is the price of admission.