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# Documents Needed to Sell Unlisted Shares: the Full Checklist
Ask any deal desk what slows sales down and the answer is never price — it is paperwork arriving late. Everything below is either already in your possession or free to obtain, so the smart move is assembling it before you ask for an offer. Organised by when each document is actually needed. (Buying instead? That checklist is here.)
Stage 1 — identity and account (needed at sign-up)
- PAN. The anchor for KYC and for capital-gains reporting.
- CMR (Client Master Report).** The digitally signed statement from your broker proving the demat account is yours — name, PAN, DP ID, BO ID. Original PDF only; screenshots carry no signature.
- Bank proof. The account that will receive the payout, in your name, matching your KYC.
On Polemarch, this stage is the standard KYC flow — if you already buy on the platform, it is done.
Stage 2 — proving what you hold (needed for the offer)
- Demat holding statement showing the company's ISIN and your quantity — this is the document that says *what* you own, where the CMR says *who* you are. Recent enough to reflect your current position.
- **For ESOP shares: the grant letter, vesting schedule, and exercise records — the exercise letter or allotment confirmation, plus the FMV used at exercise**. These establish clean title to scheme shares and become critical for tax later.
The offer itself needs the basics you type into the wizard: company, quantity, price expectation.
Stage 3 — cost history (needed for tax, best gathered now)
- For purchased shares: contract notes or purchase invoices, with dates — they set your cost of acquisition and holding period, which decide short-term versus long-term treatment.
- For ESOP shares: the exercise-time FMV is your cost basis.
A sale can sometimes proceed while these are reassembled; your capital-gains computation cannot. The rules they feed into are in tax on selling unlisted shares — and losing this folder is mistake number six on the ESOP mistakes list.
Stage 4 — the transaction documents (generated during the sale)
- Share purchase agreement (SPA) — price, quantity, payment sequence. In a Polemarch sale, the platform's transaction documents cover this.
- Company-side approvals, where the company's articles require them (ROFR, board approval) — the process is in the transfer guide.
- DIS or e-DIS authorisation — the instruction that actually moves the shares, carrying the ISIN, quantity, and the buyer's demat coordinates.
- Transfer confirmation — keep the final statement showing the debit; it closes the loop for verification and your records. Payment then settles within T+2 working days of verification.
NRI sellers: flag it first
The mechanics match, but the payment leg adds Section 195 TDS by the buyer and remittance paperwork (15CA/15CB). Say so at the start — it changes settlement, and handling it upfront beats discovering it at payout.
The short version
PAN, CMR, bank proof, holding statement — plus grant and exercise records if the shares came from ESOPs, and your cost history for the CA. With that folder ready, the selling process runs at the speed of the market instead of the speed of your inbox, starting at Polemarch's sell desk.
Ready to sell? Start with one request
If you hold unlisted shares, pre-IPO stock, or vested ESOPs, Polemarch's sell desk gives you three routes from a single submission: a direct purchase offer from Polemarch itself (the Polemarch Guarantee — the guarantee is that Polemarch is the buyer, not a promise about price or return), an assisted sale worked through our buyer network, or a waitlist entry that alerts us the moment matching demand appears. Submit the company, quantity, and your price expectation at /dashboard/sell — you see the offer before you commit to anything, and once a transfer is verified, payment settles to your bank within T+2 working days.
*Published by the Polemarch editorial team. Educational only — not investment, legal, or tax advice.*