How to Convert Old Hindustan Unilever (HUL) Share Certificates to Demat and Recover Them from IEPF

To convert an old Hindustan Unilever (HUL) share certificate to demat — including one that still says Hindustan Lever, the company’s name until 2007 — open a demat account in exactly the name printed on the certificate, update your KYC with HUL’s registrar, KFin Technologies, and ask the registrar to credit the shares to that account. If the shares have already moved to the IEPF, you claim them back with Form IEPF-5 — and since December 2025 that means two claims, because every HUL share now carries a Kwality Wall’s share as well. Either way, the number of shares you receive is not the number printed on the certificate.

Every old ₹10 Hindustan Lever share is 10 HUL shares today, because the shares were split in July 2000. And if the certificate names Tata Oil Mills, Brooke Bond Lipton, Pond’s, International Bestfoods, Vashisti Detergents or SmithKline Beecham Consumer Healthcare, a merger ratio applies before that. Every ratio is below.

Somewhere in your house — in a locker, a steel almirah, or a file that belonged to your father — there may be a share certificate from a company that no longer exists.

The Tata Oil Mills Company. Brooke Bond Lipton India. Pond’s (India). Lipton India. Hindustan Milkfood Manufacturers. Or simply Hindustan Lever Limited.

You searched the name. Nothing useful came up. So the certificate went back in the file.

It is very unlikely to be worthless. Between 1992 and 2020, a string of mergers turned shares in more than a dozen companies into shares of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), trading at around ₹1,950 a share in September 2026. And since December 2025, every HUL share has come with a second share on top: Kwality Wall’s (India) Limited, the ice cream business HUL split off.

This page gives you the exact ratio for every one of those events. Every ratio comes from HUL’s own published record of its mergers and demergers, checked against court orders and exchange price records wherever those still survive. Where only one source exists, we say so.

Work out your number first. Then read the section on what it takes to actually get these shares into your demat account — the calculation is the easy part.

What is the current name of Hindustan Lever Limited?

Hindustan Unilever Limited — it is the same company, renamed with effect from 11 June 2007. Shareholders approved the new name at the 74th annual general meeting on 18 May 2007.

If your certificate says Hindustan Lever Limited, stop worrying about mergers. No exchange took place and no ratio applies. Today the shares trade under the NSE symbol HINDUNILVR, and the company’s registrar is KFin Technologies.

There is one catch. If your certificate shows a face value of ₹10, it is from before July 2000, and the number on it is not the number you own today. Read the next section.

Where did Hindustan Lever itself come from? HUL’s own history records that it was formed in 1956 by merging three companies — Hindustan Vanaspati Manufacturing Company (1931), Lever Brothers India (1933) and United Traders (1935) — and that Indian investors were first brought in at that merger, with 10% of the equity.

How many times has HUL split its shares or issued bonus shares?

Once each way that matters: one split, in July 2000, and four bonus issues, the last of them in 1991. There has been no bonus issue and no split in the twenty-six years since.

The 1991 bonus and the 2000 split both show up in the exchange price records on those exact dates, as a step down in the share price. The 1979, 1983 and 1987 bonuses are older than those records. They come from exchange-data history and have not been checked against a company document, so treat anything before 1991 as something to confirm against your folio.

So how many shares do you hold now?

Multiply the shares you bought by the figure for the period you bought them in:

The older figures are “about” because bonus fractions were paid out in cash, so a real folio can come out a few shares lower.

Then add the same number again in Kwality Wall’s shares, if you still held them on 5 December 2025.

The 2001 “bonus” that was not a bonus

In 2001, HLL issued bonus debentures, not bonus shares — one ₹6 debenture for every ₹1 share, according to its own stock-exchange filing. Several websites list it as a share bonus. It was not. HUL says those debentures were repaid in 2005, and that the unclaimed repayment money went to the IEPF in August 2012. Do not multiply your shares for it.

What is the demerger ratio for Hindustan Unilever?

One Kwality Wall’s (India) Limited share for every one HUL share held on the record date, 5 December 2025. Both have a face value of ₹1.

This was a demerger, not a merger. You kept every HUL share and received a Kwality Wall’s share on top. Kwality Wall’s traded at around ₹42 in September 2026 — small next to HUL, but it is a second holding in your name, and it has to be claimed on its own.

If your HUL shares are still on paper

HUL’s own FAQ on the allotment is clear: Kwality Wall’s shares were issued in electronic form only. No certificate was printed for anyone.

If your HUL folio was not KYC-complete with demat details registered, your Kwality Wall’s shares were not lost. HUL says they are being held in a suspense account of Kwality Wall’s, in electronic form, until you complete KYC on the HUL folio and give the registrar your demat account details.

If your HUL shares were already with the IEPF

Then the Kwality Wall’s shares went to the IEPF as well. HUL’s FAQ says so in terms: getting them back takes two separate IEPF-5 claims — one for HUL and one for Kwality Wall’s, each after its own entitlement letter from that company.

Most families claiming old HUL shares will file one form and never learn the second one existed.

Which companies merged into Hindustan Lever, and at what ratio?

Six mergers matter to ordinary shareholders: Tata Oil Mills, Brooke Bond Lipton India, Pond’s India, International Bestfoods, Vashisti Detergents and GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare. Each was a merger — the old share was cancelled and replaced by HLL or HUL shares.

The TOMCO ratio also appears in the Supreme Court’s 1994 judgment on the merger, the Brooke Bond Lipton ratio in the sanctioned scheme (9 shares of ₹10 for every 20), and the Pond’s ratio in press reports at the time. The International Bestfoods, Vashisti and GSK Consumer ratios are stated word for word in the companies’ own stock-exchange filings — record dates 31 March 2006 for Vashisti and 17 April 2020 for GSK Consumer.

The face-value trap — the mistake that changes the answer ten times over

Look at the “HUL shares were” column. It decides whether the 2000 split applies to you.

• TOMCO, Brooke Bond Lipton and Pond’s holders were given the old ₹10 HLL shares. Each of those became ten ₹1 shares in July 2000. Multiply by 10.
• International Bestfoods, Vashisti and GSK Consumer holders were given the new ₹1 shares, after the split. Do not multiply by 10.

Apply the split to a GSK Consumer holding and you will overstate it ten times. Forget it on a Pond’s holding and you will understate it ten times. We see both.

Old HDFC certificates carry the same trap in both directions. A ₹100 HDFC share from before 1999 is 336 HDFC Bank shares today — while an old Centurion Bank certificate that says ₹10 has not multiplied at all. Here is how to read an old HDFC or HDFC Bank certificate.

The ordering trap

HLL’s four bonus issues all happened before 1992. They apply only to shares that were already HLL shares at the time.

A TOMCO shareholder only became an HLL shareholder in 1995. The 1991 bonus does not apply to them. Build your answer as a timeline — what did I hold, and on which date — never as a bag of multipliers.

Fractions were never rounded up

In every one of these schemes, fractional entitlements were pooled and sold, and the cash was sent to shareholders. HUL’s record lists a cash value for fractions in each scheme.

So 100 TOMCO shares became 13 HLL shares and a cheque, not 13.33 shares. If nobody banked that cheque, the money is probably sitting unclaimed too.

The quick-reference multiplier

Multiply the number of shares you held at the time of the merger by this figure. It already includes the 2000 split where it applies.

“Same number again” assumes the HUL shares were still held on 5 December 2025. If they had already gone to the IEPF, the Kwality Wall’s shares are there too.

Worked examples — 100 shares of each

100 Tata Oil Mills (TOMCO) shares, held at the 1994–95 merger

• 100 × 2/15 = 13.33 → 13 HLL shares of ₹10 + cash for the fraction (April 1995)
• No HLL bonus applies — the last one was in 1991, before you were an HLL shareholder
• July 2000 split → 130 HUL shares
• December 2025 → 130 Kwality Wall’s shares on top

Today: 130 HUL shares + 130 Kwality Wall’s shares — roughly ₹2.6 lakh at September 2026 prices, before counting decades of dividends.

100 Brooke Bond Lipton India shares, held at the 1996–97 merger

• 100 × 9/20 = 45 HLL shares of ₹10 (May 1997)
• July 2000 split → 450 HUL shares
• December 2025 → 450 Kwality Wall’s shares

Today: 450 HUL shares + 450 Kwality Wall’s shares — roughly ₹9.0 lakh at September 2026 prices, before counting decades of dividends.

100 Pond’s (India) shares, held at the 1998–99 merger

• 100 × 3/4 = 75 HLL shares of ₹10 (March 1999)
• July 2000 split → 750 HUL shares
• December 2025 → 750 Kwality Wall’s shares

Today: 750 HUL shares + 750 Kwality Wall’s shares — roughly ₹14.9 lakh at September 2026 prices, before counting decades of dividends.

100 GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare shares, held at the 2020 merger

• 100 × 4.39 = 439 HUL shares of ₹1 (April 2020)
• No split applies — it happened twenty years earlier
• December 2025 → 439 Kwality Wall’s shares

Today: 439 HUL shares + 439 Kwality Wall’s shares — roughly ₹8.7 lakh at September 2026 prices, before counting decades of dividends.

100 Hindustan Lever shares, bought in 1990

• July 1991 bonus 1 : 2 → 150 shares of ₹10
• July 2000 split → 1,500 HUL shares
• December 2025 → 1,500 Kwality Wall’s shares

Today: 1,500 HUL shares + 1,500 Kwality Wall’s shares — roughly ₹29.8 lakh at September 2026 prices, before counting decades of dividends.

The long path: the Brooke Bond family

Five more companies reached HUL through Brooke Bond India, before Brooke Bond itself merged into HLL in 1997. If your certificate names one of them, it counts.

When Lipton India merged in, Brooke Bond India was renamed Brooke Bond Lipton India. Brooke Bond India’s own shareholders simply kept their shares under the new name.

So 100 Lipton India shares → 90 Brooke Bond Lipton → 40 HLL of ₹10 (plus cash) → 400 HUL shares + 400 Kwality Wall’s shares today.

HUL’s record also lists Kissan Products (1994) merging into Brooke Bond India, and smaller, closely held companies — Industrial Perfumes, TOC Disinfectants and International Fisheries — merging into HLL. Very few public certificates of these exist. If you hold one, the registrar check is the answer, not a formula.

I hold SmithKline Beecham shares. How many HUL shares is that today?

If your certificate says SmithKline Beecham Consumer Healthcare, every share became 4.39 HUL shares in April 2020 — so 100 shares are 439 HUL shares today, plus 439 Kwality Wall’s shares. That is roughly ₹8.7 lakh at September 2026 prices.

SmithKline Beecham Consumer Healthcare was the Horlicks company. It was renamed GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare in 2002–03 and merged into HUL at 4.39 HUL shares of ₹1 for every 1 share of ₹10 held on the record date, 17 April 2020. The same applies if your certificate says Hindustan Milkfood Manufacturers or HMM Limited, the company’s earlier names.

The renames never changed anyone’s share count — it was one company throughout.

Two bonus issues did. The exchange price records show the share price stepping down in mid-1995 (a 1 : 1 bonus) and mid-1997 (a 1 : 2 bonus). So the date you bought matters:

1,317 HUL shares and their Kwality Wall’s shares come to roughly ₹26 lakh at September 2026 prices. The 4.39 ratio was fixed on the new ₹1 HUL shares, so the 2000 split does not apply.

If you have the bonus certificates as well, simply add everything up. That total is what went into the 2020 swap.

Which old companies do NOT turn into HUL shares?

Several companies that sound like HUL — or sold famous brands to it — never gave their shareholders a single HUL share. Check this list before you calculate anything.

And one the other way round: The Tata Oil Mills Company is not a Tata group holding today. Its shares became HUL shares in 1995. Nor is it Tata Steel — if you have old TISCO certificates, that is a different chain entirely.

The same kind of name trap runs through ITC: a paper certificate that reads ITC Hotels Limited is not today’s ITC Hotels — that company merged into ITC in 2005. Here is how old ITC certificates convert.

So you have a number. Now the hard part.

Working out your entitlement is the only easy step. If those shares were sitting quietly in a demat account, you would not be reading this. Usually one of these is true.

You never exchanged the old certificate

A TOMCO, Brooke Bond or Pond’s certificate was cancelled when the merger happened, and HLL certificates were posted out in its place. Many never arrived. HUL runs a procedure for exactly this: the original certificate goes to the registrar, KFin Technologies, with the KYC forms (ISR-1, ISR-2, ISR-3 or SH-13, and ISR-4). The same route applies if you still hold ₹10 Hindustan Lever certificates from before the 2000 split.

Whatever route applies, the shares now arrive only in electronic form. Open a demat account in exactly the name on the certificate before you start.

Your shares have gone to the IEPF

When a dividend goes unclaimed for seven years in a row, the shares themselves are moved to the Investor Education and Protection Fund. HUL pays a dividend every year, so if your address went stale in 2005, the shares very likely left your folio years ago. Now there are two claims to file, not one — here is how Form IEPF-5 works, and why claims sit pending for months.

The certificate is lost

A duplicate is possible, but the process changed in 2026. The current rules for a lost share certificate are here.

The original holder has died, or the name does not match

The certificate may be in a name that can no longer sign anything — a parent, a grandparent. Or it says “S. K. Sharma” and your PAN says “Suresh Kumar Sharma”. Each is its own procedure: transmission after a death, and fixing a name or signature mismatch.

Your dividends are unclaimed too

Thirty years of HUL dividends is real money. It may be with the company or the IEPF. Here is how unclaimed dividends are recovered.

Why not just hand the certificate to a local lawyer or agent?

Because a certificate is only worth what is traced behind it — and on an HUL chain, the tracing is where the money is.

Take a family holding 100 Tata Oil Mills shares. A generalist starts from what the family remembers: “100 Tata shares.” He either goes looking at the wrong group entirely, or finds the HLL link, works out 13 shares, and files for 13. The family gets a fraction of what it owns, and is back in the queue for the rest — the 117 shares from the 2000 split, the 130 Kwality Wall’s shares in a separate company, and the unclaimed dividends.

We work the other way round. We trace the complete holding first — every merger, the split, the demerger, every folio. Then a vetted local partner handles the paperwork where you live, on the full holding, the first time.

There is also the question of who is paid for what. A lawyer or agent is paid whether or not your shares ever arrive. We are not. Zero advance — you pay only once the shares are credited to your demat account. So the only thing we are paid for is the whole chain working.

And the document is the start, not the finish. After the certificate come the exchange at the registrar, the demat credit, two IEPF-5 claims if the shares have gone to the IEPF, and a transmission if the holder has died. Anyone can get you a piece of paper. We get you the shares.

One date you should know about

SEBI’s special window for old physical transfers closes on 4 February 2027. It covers transfer deeds signed before 1 April 2019 that were rejected, returned or never processed — for example, HLL shares you bought on paper and never got registered in your own name.

It does not cover shares already transferred to the IEPF, or disputed cases, and shares registered through it are locked in for a year. The full rules of the window are here.

If you are holding an old certificate from any company on this page, this is the cheapest and cleanest year you will get.

Not sure what your certificate is worth? Start with Find Your Shares →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the current name of Hindustan Lever Ltd?
Hindustan Unilever Limited. It is the same company, renamed with effect from 11 June 2007 after shareholders approved the change at the annual general meeting on 18 May 2007. No share exchange took place, so a Hindustan Lever certificate is an HUL holding.

How many HUL shares did Tata Oil Mills (TOMCO) shareholders get?
Two Hindustan Lever shares of ₹10 for every fifteen TOMCO shares, allotted on 5 April 1995. After HUL’s 10-for-1 split in July 2000, that is 13.33 HUL shares for every 100 TOMCO shares, with fractions paid in cash — so 100 TOMCO shares are 130 HUL shares today.

What was the Brooke Bond Lipton India to HLL merger ratio?
Nine Hindustan Lever shares of ₹10 for every twenty Brooke Bond Lipton India shares, allotted on 16 May 1997. After the 2000 split, 100 Brooke Bond Lipton shares are 450 HUL shares today.

What was the Pond’s India to HLL merger ratio?
Three Hindustan Lever shares of ₹10 for every four Pond’s (India) shares, allotted on 3 March 1999. After the 2000 split, 100 Pond’s shares are 750 HUL shares today.

How many HUL shares did GSK Consumer Healthcare shareholders get?
4.39 HUL shares of ₹1 for every one GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare share of ₹10, allotted on 21 April 2020. The 2000 split does not apply, because these were already ₹1 shares.

I have SmithKline Beecham shares. How many HUL shares do I own today?
If the certificate says SmithKline Beecham Consumer Healthcare, each share became 4.39 HUL shares of ₹1 on the record date of 17 April 2020, so 100 shares are 439 HUL shares today, plus 439 Kwality Wall’s shares from the December 2025 demerger — roughly ₹8.7 lakh at September 2026 prices. If you bought before the 1995 and 1997 bonus issues, the count is higher: 100 shares bought before mid-1995 are about 1,317 HUL shares. If the certificate says SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, it is a different company: it merged into Glaxo India in 2001 at one share for every two, and those holders received GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals shares, not HUL shares.

What is the demerger ratio for Hindustan Unilever?
One Kwality Wall’s (India) Limited share for every one HUL share held on the record date of 5 December 2025. It was a demerger, so shareholders kept their HUL shares and received Kwality Wall’s shares in addition. Kwality Wall’s listed on 16 February 2026.

How many times has HUL split its shares?
Once. The face value was split from ₹10 to ₹1 with effect from 3 July 2000, so every old share became ten. HUL has not split or issued bonus shares since. Its last bonus issue was 1 : 2 in 1991.

My HUL shares went to the IEPF. Did I lose the Kwality Wall’s shares?
No. The Kwality Wall’s shares for HUL shares held by the IEPF were credited to the IEPF as well. According to HUL, getting both back takes two separate IEPF-5 claims, one for HUL and one for Kwality Wall’s, each after an entitlement letter from that company.

Did Lakmé shareholders get HUL shares?
No. Lakmé Limited sold its brand and factories to Hindustan Lever in 1998 — a sale, not a merger — and renamed itself Trent Limited. Lakmé shareholders hold Trent shares, not HUL shares.