How to Convert Old United Spirits Share Certificates to Demat and Recover Them from IEPF

To convert an old United Spirits share certificate to demat, including one printed McDowell & Co., Shaw Wallace, Herbertsons, Balaji Distilleries or Pioneer Distilleries, open a demat account in exactly the name printed on it, update your KYC with the company’s registrar, Integrated Registry Management Services in Bengaluru, and hand the certificate in with a Demat Request Form through the depository participant (DP) that runs your demat account. If the shares have already moved to the IEPF, you claim them back with Form IEPF-5.

The number on the paper is not the number you own. United Spirits has never issued bonus shares, but in June 2018 every ₹10 share became five ₹2 shares. So a ₹10 McDowell or United Spirits certificate for 100 shares is 500 shares today, about ₹6.91 lakh at the 15 October 2026 price of ₹1,381.50. Families who held McDowell shares in October 2006 were also given 1 share of McDowell Holdings for every 5.

You may hold United Spirits shares even if you never bought United Spirits. The shareholders of Shaw Wallace & Company in Kolkata, Herbertsons in Mumbai, Balaji Distilleries in Chennai and Pioneer Distilleries were all given United Spirits shares when their companies merged in, between 2006 and 2023. Check what your family holds with Find Your Shares →

How many United Spirits shares is an old certificate today?

Look at three things on the certificate: the company’s name, the face value (₹10 or ₹2 a share) and the date. A ₹10 McDowell or United Spirits certificate from between 2001 and June 2018 is multiplied by 5, because of the 2018 split. A certificate of a company that merged into United Spirits is converted at that merger’s terms first, and then multiplied by 5 if the merger came before 2018.

Fractions were not issued as shares. A merger holding that did not divide exactly was rounded down, and the leftover was normally sold and paid in cash, so the table shows whole shares. The folio’s count at Integrated Registry Management Services is the final word.

Our certificate says McDowell & Co. Which company is it?

It depends on the date. A McDowell & Co. certificate issued after September 2001 is today’s United Spirits. One issued before mid-2001 belongs to the original McDowell & Co., a different company, whose shares last traded in June 2001. The two had the same name, but they are not the same legal company.

• Today’s company was set up on 31 March 1999 as McDowell Spirits Limited, in Bengaluru. It was renamed McDowell & Company Limited on 1 April 2000, its shares began trading on the stock exchanges on 27 September 2001, and it became United Spirits Limited on 17 October 2006.
• The original McDowell & Co. is the company the UB Group had owned since 1951. Its shares stopped trading in June 2001, a few months before the new company’s started.
• How the original company’s shareholders were carried across in 2001 is not in the exchange records published online. So for a McDowell certificate dated before mid-2001 we do not quote a number from a table. We ask the registrar what that folio became, and work from its answer.
• The date is the surest clue. Look at the date on the certificate and on any transfer stamps on its back. If it is earlier than 2001, treat it as the original company until the registrar says otherwise.

Do not throw a pre-2001 McDowell certificate away because it looks too old. It is the starting point for the registrar’s search, and the folio number on it is often the only way into the record.

Has United Spirits ever issued bonus shares or split its shares? The full history

No bonus shares, ever, since its shares began trading in 2001, and one split: each ₹10 share became five ₹2 shares in June 2018. Everything else that matters to an old certificate is a merger or a demerger. Here is the full list.

The 2006 merger also brought in Phipson Distillery, Triumph Distillers & Vintners, Shaw Wallace Distilleries, Baramati Grape Industries, United Distillers India and McDowell International Brands. These were mostly subsidiaries and joint ventures of the group, so very few families hold their certificates. If you have one, send it to the registrar: each had its own terms.

What are old McDowell, Shaw Wallace or Herbertsons shares worth today?

A ₹10 McDowell or United Spirits certificate for 100 shares is worth about ₹6.91 lakh today: 500 shares at ₹1,381.50, the 15 October 2026 close. Prices move every day, so treat these as a guide.

United Spirits paid ₹17 a share in dividends for 2025–26: ₹6 in January 2026 and ₹11 after the July record date. A folio of 500 shares was owed ₹8,500 for that one year alone. If dividends go uncashed for seven years in a row, the shares themselves move to the IEPF.

We held McDowell shares in 2006. Do we own McDowell Holdings shares too?

Yes, if the family held McDowell shares on 26 October 2006: you were given 1 McDowell Holdings share for every 5 McDowell shares, and kept all the McDowell shares. McDowell Holdings took over the company’s investment business and was listed separately. A folio of 100 McDowell shares got 20 McDowell Holdings shares, on a separate folio.

• McDowell Holdings went into a corporate insolvency resolution process in April 2022, and its shares are suspended from trading. The shares are still on its register, but there is no market for them today.
• Do not let them hold up the United Spirits claim. McDowell Holdings is a separate company, with its own folio and its own process. The United Spirits shares are the ones with value, and they are claimed on their own.
• Only McDowell holders on 26 October 2006 got them. Herbertsons holders, whose record date was a day later, did not. Nor did Shaw Wallace, Balaji or Pioneer holders, who joined later.

We hold old Shaw Wallace shares. How many United Spirits shares are they now?

Shaw Wallace & Company merged into United Spirits in 2009. Every shareholder on the record date, 17 July 2009, got 4 United Spirits shares of ₹10 for every 17 Shaw Wallace shares of ₹10. Those ₹10 shares were then split five ways in 2018. So 100 Shaw Wallace shares are 115 United Spirits shares today, about ₹1.59 lakh, and 1,000 are 1,175, about ₹16.23 lakh.

Shaw Wallace was a Kolkata company, more than a century old. The UB Group bought control of it in 2005, and the formal merger followed four years later, once the high courts in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata had approved it.

• The 2005 open offer was optional. It paid cash to shareholders who chose to sell. Families who did not sell kept their Shaw Wallace shares, and those became United Spirits shares in 2009.
• Fractions were not issued as shares. Few holdings divide exactly by 17. The leftover was normally sold and paid in cash.
• Older Shaw Wallace certificates may stand for more shares. Shaw Wallace’s own share history from before 2000 is not on the public record online. If your certificate is from the early 1990s or before, the folio may have grown before 2009. What counts is what the folio held on 17 July 2009, and the registrar can tell you.
• Search the IEPF under United Spirits, not Shaw Wallace. Shaw Wallace stopped existing in 2009, years before companies began moving shares to the IEPF in 2017. Any shares that moved, moved as United Spirits shares.
• Shaw Wallace Distilleries, a subsidiary, merged into McDowell separately in 2006, at 7 McDowell shares for every 20.

We hold Herbertsons shares. What are they now?

United Spirits shares. Herbertsons merged into McDowell & Co. in 2006, and every shareholder on 27 October 2006 got 2 McDowell shares of ₹10 for every 3 Herbertsons shares of ₹10. With the 2018 split, 100 Herbertsons shares are 330 United Spirits shares today, about ₹4.56 lakh. 500 are 1,665, about ₹23 lakh.

• Herbertsons was a Mumbai company in the UB Group. Its merger was approved by the high courts in Bengaluru and Mumbai.
• The 2003 cash offers for Herbertsons were optional. Families who did not sell kept their shares, and those became McDowell shares in 2006.
• Herbertsons holders did not get McDowell Holdings shares. Their record date, 27 October 2006, came a day after the McDowell Holdings record date.
• Fractions were not issued as shares. The leftover from a holding that did not divide exactly by 3 was normally paid in cash.

We hold Balaji Distilleries or Pioneer Distilleries shares. What are they now?

United Spirits shares, in both cases, but far fewer of them than the number on the paper. Both companies were in financial difficulty when they merged in, so their terms were small.

• Balaji Distilleries merged under a rescue scheme approved by the Appellate Authority for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction in November 2010. Its brewery went to a subsidiary, Chennai Breweries, and Balaji shareholders got no shares in it. Its United Spirits shares were ₹10 shares, so they were multiplied by 5 in 2018. A holding of fewer than 28 Balaji shares was not enough for a single United Spirits share, and was settled in cash.
• Pioneer Distilleries was a listed subsidiary of United Spirits before the merger. Its shareholders got ₹2 shares, issued after the split, so there is no further multiple. United Spirits’ own Pioneer shares were simply cancelled. A holding of fewer than 5 Pioneer shares was settled in cash.
• Search the IEPF under United Spirits, for both. Balaji folios came onto United Spirits’ register in 2011 and Pioneer folios in 2023, and they are now handled by Integrated Registry Management Services.

Is our certificate a United Spirits share? Companies that are not United Spirits

Only certificates of United Spirits Limited, McDowell & Company, and of Herbertsons, Shaw Wallace & Company, Balaji Distilleries and Pioneer Distilleries from before their mergers, lead to United Spirits shares today. These look similar but are separate:

• McDowell Holdings: the company split off in 2006. Separate shares, separate folio, now in insolvency proceedings. See above.
• United Breweries (the Kingfisher beer company) and United Breweries (Holdings): separate companies of the old UB Group. Their shares never became United Spirits shares.
• Narmada Gelatines: a separately listed company in the old Shaw Wallace group. It was left out of the 2005 deal, and its shares did not become United Spirits shares.
• Shaw Wallace Electronics: a separate company. Its shares did not become United Spirits shares.
• Radico Khaitan, Tilaknagar Industries and Allied Blenders: other liquor companies with their own shares. Old Radico Khaitan and Rampur Distillery shares.
• Diageo plc: the British company that controls United Spirits. Its own shares are listed in London. Families in India did not get them through United Spirits.

Is an old ₹10 McDowell or United Spirits certificate still valid after the 2018 split?

Yes, the shares behind it are still yours, but the registrar matches the certificate to the folio before it can be dematted. In June 2018 every ₹10 share became five ₹2 shares, and holders on paper were due new ₹2 certificates in place of the old ones.

• You have the ₹2 certificates from 2018. These can be dematted in the normal way.
• You only have the old ₹10 certificate. Send it to Integrated Registry Management Services with the folio number. The registrar checks it against the register and tells you where today’s ₹2 shares are: on the register, sent on new certificates that never arrived, or in the company’s unclaimed securities suspense account.
• You have a Shaw Wallace, Herbertsons, Balaji or Pioneer certificate. That company no longer exists, so the certificate itself cannot be dematted. It is your proof that the family was owed United Spirits shares. The registrar tells you where those shares are.
• You have nothing but a folio number or an old dividend warrant. That is enough to start. The registrar can trace the folio and you apply for the shares as lost certificates.

The old certificate stops being valid in one case: if the shares have moved to the IEPF, the paper certificate is cancelled automatically. The shares are not lost. They are claimed back from the IEPF instead.

How do you check and claim an unclaimed United Spirits dividend?

Check the unpaid-dividend lists on the company’s investor pages, then claim from Integrated Registry Management Services if the dividend is less than seven years old. Any dividend that is not cashed waits in an unpaid dividend account for seven years, then moves to the IEPF.

United Spirits’ dividend history has a ten-year gap, and it matters. The company paid a dividend every year from 2002 to 2013. Then it paid none until November 2023. Since then it has paid twice a year. So:

• Dividends from 2013 or earlier have already gone to the IEPF, if they were not cashed. They can only be recovered with Form IEPF-5.
• Dividends from November 2023 onwards are still with the company. They can be claimed from the registrar directly. The first of them falls due for the IEPF around the end of 2030.
• There are no dividends to look for between 2013 and 2023. If a search shows nothing for those years, that is why.

How to claim a dividend that is less than seven years old

Write to Integrated Registry Management Services (Unit: United Spirits Limited) with the folio number, the dividends you did not receive, a cancelled cheque, and self-attested copies of your PAN card and an address proof. Paper folios must also send the ISR forms that update their KYC. For shares already in demat, send your client master list instead.

Complete the folio’s KYC first. Since 1 April 2024, a paper folio is paid its dividend only electronically, and only if its KYC (PAN, bank account, contact details and signature) is complete. Without it the dividend is simply held back, and seven years of held-back dividends sends the shares to the IEPF.

For a dividend more than seven years old, see how to recover a dividend from the IEPF.

How do you convert old United Spirits share certificates to demat?

Open a demat account in exactly the name on the certificate, update the folio’s KYC with Integrated Registry Management Services, then hand the certificates in with a Demat Request Form through the DP that runs your demat account. If you only have ₹10 certificates, or a certificate of a merged company, ask the registrar first where today’s ₹2 shares are.

1. Open a demat account in the same name, or the same names in the same order for a joint holding.
2. Update KYC on the folio with Form ISR-1 (PAN, bank, contact details), and Form ISR-2 if your signature has changed. How to fix a signature mismatch.
3. Write ‘Surrendered for Dematerialisation’ on each United Spirits certificate, sign it as it was signed on the register, and hand it in with a Demat Request Form through the DP that runs your demat account. Put every certificate from the same folio on one form. The DP only passes the papers on; the registrar decides.
4. Ask about anything not in your hands. If the 2018 split certificates, or the United Spirits shares for a Shaw Wallace, Herbertsons, Balaji or Pioneer holding, never arrived, write to the registrar with the folio number and ask for those shares to be credited to your demat account.
5. The registrar checks the signature, the folio and the distinctive numbers against the register, and the shares arrive in your demat account, usually within a few weeks if the papers are in order.

Since April 2019, paper shares cannot be sold or transferred until they are in demat. There is no deadline to demat shares already registered in your own name. But a holding of 500 shares on old paper is one lost envelope away from a long fight. The full demat process for any company · The rules on physical shares in 2026.

How do you check if your United Spirits shares have gone to the IEPF?

If no dividend on the folio was cashed in the years up to 2013, the shares have very likely moved to the IEPF already. United Spirits moved such shares in yearly batches between 2017 and 2021. Because no dividends were paid from 2013 to 2023, no new batch has been due since.

• The company’s investor pages carry the lists of shareholders whose shares were due for transfer to the IEPF, year by year.
• The IEPF Authority’s search at iepfa.gov.in covers shares that have already moved. Search for “United Spirits Limited” and the holder’s name. It is a search by name, not by folio number. How to find IEPF shares when you only have a folio number.
• Search under United Spirits for every old folio, whether the certificate says McDowell, Shaw Wallace, Herbertsons, Balaji or Pioneer. Search every old spelling of the holder’s name, and the joint holders’ names too.
• Read the count carefully. The IEPF shows today’s ₹2 shares. A ₹10 certificate for 100 McDowell shares appears as 500 shares.

Old McDowell and Herbertsons folios are the most likely to be in the IEPF, because they were on the register through all the dividends up to 2013. Shaw Wallace, Balaji and Pioneer folios joined later, in 2009, 2011 and 2023, but check them too. How to search the IEPF step by step.

How do you recover United Spirits shares from the IEPF?

Get an entitlement letter from Integrated Registry Management Services, file Form IEPF-5 online on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs website, then send the signed papers to United Spirits’ nodal officer for verification. The company checks the claim and sends a verification report to the IEPF Authority, which credits the shares back to your demat account and refunds the dividends.

1. Open a demat account in the claimant’s name. For a joint folio, the same names in the same order.
2. Complete KYC with the registrar and ask for an entitlement letter. It confirms how many shares, and which years’ dividends, from your folio went to the IEPF. The IEPF Authority tells claimants to get it before filing, and the first question on the form asks for it.
3. File Form IEPF-5 on the MCA portal and note the SRN, your claim number. How to file IEPF-5 online.
4. Send the physical documents to the company’s nodal officer: the signed IEPF-5 form and acknowledgement, the original indemnity bond on stamp paper, a copy of your Aadhaar, the original certificates or other proof of entitlement, and a cancelled cheque.
5. United Spirits verifies and reports to the IEPF Authority. The rules give the company 30 days from receiving your claim to file its report, and the Authority 60 days to decide once the report is complete: about 90 days on paper. Real claims usually take much longer, because papers go back and forth. What to do when an IEPF claim is stuck.

Claim the whole folio, not the number on the paper. Claim only the 100 printed on a ₹10 McDowell certificate and you leave 400 shares in the queue. The entitlement letter is based on the company’s register, so it gives the full count after the split. You can file only one IEPF claim for a company in a financial year, so the first one has to be complete. Shaw Wallace, Herbertsons, Balaji and Pioneer no longer exist, so their shares are claimed through United Spirits, together with any United Spirits folio in the same name.

What if the United Spirits share certificates are lost?

If the shares are still with the company, apply to Integrated Registry Management Services for duplicate shares with Form ISR-4. If they have gone to the IEPF, you claim them with IEPF-5 instead and do not need a duplicate. When paper shares move to the IEPF, the old certificates are cancelled automatically.

For duplicates, what you need depends on what the lost shares are worth today. SEBI simplified these rules in December 2025:

• Up to ₹10,000: a simple undertaking on plain paper.
• ₹10,000 to ₹10 lakh: one standard affidavit-cum-indemnity bond.
• Above ₹10 lakh: the affidavit-cum-indemnity bond, plus a police report (FIR, e-FIR or police complaint) that mentions the folio and certificate numbers, plus a notice of the loss in a widely read newspaper.

₹10,000 covers just 7 of today’s United Spirits shares, and ₹10 lakh about 723. The count that matters is the folio today, after the split. Just 145 shares on a ₹10 McDowell certificate are already above ₹10 lakh today, and so are 617 Shaw Wallace shares. A lost certificate for them needs the police report and the newspaper notice.

Open the demat account before you apply. Since 2 April 2026 the registrar credits duplicate shares straight into demat. There is no longer a “Letter of Confirmation” to take to your DP. SEBI expects about 30 days for a complete, correct application.

Don’t know the folio number? Old dividend warrants, bank passbooks showing McDowell or United Spirits dividend credits, an allotment letter, or a letter about the 2006, 2009 or 2011 mergers can give it. The full process is in our guide to reporting a lost share certificate.

What if the name or spelling on the certificate does not match?

Fix the name on the folio first, before you demat or file an IEPF claim, using Form ISR-1 and a document that proves both spellings belong to you. The registrar, the demat account and the IEPF claim must all show the same name. One mismatch and the papers come back.

• Initials on the certificate, full name on the PAN card: “B. S. Ramaswamy” against “Bangalore Subbarao Ramaswamy”. Very common on old Bengaluru and Chennai folios, including Balaji Distilleries.
• Two forms of a Bengali surname: “Bandyopadhyay” on an old Shaw Wallace certificate and “Banerjee” on the PAN card, or “Chattopadhyay” and “Chatterjee”.
• The father’s name in the middle: “Rustom Jehangir Mistry” against “Rustom J. Mistry”, as on many old Herbertsons folios from Mumbai.
• A surname added or dropped: “Gurpreet Singh” on the certificate and “Gurpreet Singh Sethi” on the PAN card.
• A woman’s maiden name on the certificate and her married name on everything else.

The usual proof is a passport, a marriage certificate, a gazette notification, or a notarised affidavit that both names are the same person. Send it to Integrated Registry Management Services with Form ISR-1.

What if the United Spirits shareholder has died?

The shares pass to the nominee or legal heirs through transmission, handled by Integrated Registry Management Services, and they are always credited in demat. If the shares have also gone to the IEPF, transmission and the IEPF claim happen together, and the heir files the IEPF-5. If one joint holder has died, the survivors only need the name deleted with a copy of the death certificate.

SEBI’s new transmission rules have applied since 22 August 2026:

• Simplified documents for physical shares worth up to ₹10 lakh per listed company, doubled from ₹5 lakh.
• Quick processing for physical holdings up to ₹10,000 where the claimant is a parent, spouse, child or parent-in-law. With United Spirits that is just 7 of today’s shares.
• No blanket requirement for probate, and one combined affidavit-cum-NOC in place of separate papers. You still have to prove your entitlement if other heirs dispute it.
• 21 days for the registrar to process once all documents are in.

The ₹10 lakh limit is counted on today’s value of the whole folio, not on the number printed on the certificate. With United Spirits that is about 723 of today’s shares, or just 145 shares on a ₹10 McDowell certificate. Above the limit you usually need a succession certificate or legal heir certificate, unless there is a nominee or the other heirs give no-objection. McDowell Holdings is a separate company, so its shares need their own transmission. Read more in our guides to transmission of shares and transmission without a succession certificate.

Bought McDowell or United Spirits shares on paper but never got them transferred?

You can use SEBI’s special window, open until 4 February 2027, if the shares were bought before 1 April 2019 and you still have the original certificate. It is for people who bought shares from someone else, signed a transfer deed, and never became the registered holder.

• It covers transfers never lodged, and transfers lodged before but rejected or returned.
• It does not cover disputed cases, or shares already moved to the IEPF.
• The shares are credited in demat only, and they are locked in for one year from the date the transfer is registered.

The 2018 split shares, and any McDowell Holdings shares, went to the seller, who was still the registered holder. So a ₹10 certificate bought before 2018 and never transferred stands for 500 shares per 100 today, but the new ₹2 certificates may have been sent to the seller. Ask the registrar what the folio shows before you lodge the deed. The full rules of the window.

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

Because with these certificates the name and the number on the paper are both likely to be wrong, and a generalist works from the paper.

Take a family in Kolkata with a Shaw Wallace certificate for 1,000 shares. A generalist looks for Shaw Wallace on the stock exchange, finds nothing, and tells them the paper is worthless. In fact it stands for 1,175 United Spirits shares, about ₹16.23 lakh. Or take a ₹10 McDowell certificate for 200 shares. A generalist reads “200 shares”, values them at about ₹2.76 lakh, and prepares the simple papers. But the folio really holds 1,000 shares, about ₹13.81 lakh, over the ₹10 lakh line, where a duplicate needs a police report and a newspaper notice and a transmission usually needs a succession certificate.

So the papers come back, and the family starts again months later. And nobody checks whether a pre-2001 McDowell certificate belongs to the original company, or finds the Herbertsons or Balaji papers in the same cupboard that turned into United Spirits shares too.

We work the other way round. We trace the complete holding first: every certificate, every merger it went through, the 2018 split, every folio, and every IEPF transfer. Then a vetted local partner handles the paperwork where you live (affidavits, police report, newspaper notice, succession papers) 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 we only get paid if the whole chain works.

United Spirits’ registrar and registered office are in Bengaluru. But the IEPF claim itself is decided in Delhi, where the IEPF Authority sits and where your file waits in the queue. Our team is in Delhi, so we can follow your file up in person, not by letter from another city. The question is not who is closest to you. It is who is closest to the office that holds your file. Share recovery in Bengaluru · Kolkata, for Shaw Wallace families · Mumbai, for Herbertsons families · Chennai, for Balaji families.

The document is only the start. After it come the KYC, the entitlement letter, the verification, the demat credit, and a transmission if the holder has died. Anyone can get you a piece of paper. We get you the shares. See how our IEPF claim service works.

Dates you should know about

18 June 2018 is the split record date. Each ₹10 share became five ₹2 shares. A ₹10 certificate is from before it.

26 October 2006 is the McDowell Holdings record date, and 27 October 2006 the Herbertsons record date.

17 July 2009 is the Shaw Wallace record date, 10 January 2011 the Balaji Distilleries record date, and 6 January 2023 the Pioneer Distilleries record date.

Around the end of 2030, the first of the dividends paid since November 2023 falls due for the IEPF, if it has not been cashed.

4 February 2027 is when SEBI’s special window for old physical transfers closes.

Holding other old certificates too? See what happened to Radico Khaitan shares, ITC shares, Britannia shares and Tata Tea and Tata Consumer shares.

Not sure how many United Spirits shares your family’s McDowell, Shaw Wallace, Herbertsons or Balaji papers add up to, or whether they have gone to the IEPF? Start with Find Your Shares →

Frequently Asked Questions

Has United Spirits ever issued bonus shares?
No. Since its shares began trading in 2001, United Spirits (formerly McDowell & Company) has never issued bonus shares. The only change to the count on an old certificate is the 2018 split, when each ₹10 share became five ₹2 shares.

How many times has United Spirits split its shares?
Once. Each ₹10 share became five ₹2 shares, for shareholders on the record date, 18 June 2018. So a ₹10 McDowell or United Spirits certificate is from before June 2018, and is worth 5 of today’s shares for every share printed on it.

How many United Spirits shares do 100 old McDowell shares become today?
A ₹10 McDowell & Co. or United Spirits certificate for 100 shares from between 2001 and June 2018 is 500 shares today, worth about ₹6.91 lakh at the 15 October 2026 price of ₹1,381.50. A McDowell certificate dated before mid-2001 belongs to the original McDowell & Co., a different company, so the registrar has to confirm what that folio became.

What did Shaw Wallace shareholders get when Shaw Wallace merged into United Spirits?
4 United Spirits shares of ₹10 for every 17 Shaw Wallace shares of ₹10, for shareholders on the record date, 17 July 2009. After the 2018 split, 100 Shaw Wallace shares are 115 United Spirits shares today and 1,000 are 1,175. Fractions were normally paid in cash.

What did Herbertsons shareholders get?
2 McDowell & Co. shares of ₹10 for every 3 Herbertsons shares of ₹10, for shareholders on 27 October 2006. McDowell was renamed United Spirits the same month, and its shares were split five ways in 2018, so 100 Herbertsons shares are 330 United Spirits shares today.

What did Balaji Distilleries and Pioneer Distilleries shareholders get?
Balaji Distilleries holders on 10 January 2011 got 2 United Spirits shares of ₹10 for every 55 Balaji shares, so 1,000 Balaji shares are 180 United Spirits shares today. Pioneer Distilleries holders on 6 January 2023 got 10 United Spirits shares of ₹2 for every 47 Pioneer shares, so 1,000 Pioneer shares are 212.

What are McDowell Holdings shares, and are they worth anything?
McDowell Holdings took over McDowell & Co.’s investment business in 2006. Every McDowell shareholder on 26 October 2006 got 1 McDowell Holdings share for every 5 McDowell shares. The company went into a corporate insolvency resolution process in April 2022 and its shares are suspended from trading, so there is no market for them today. They are a separate folio and should not hold up a United Spirits claim.

Who owns United Spirits?
Diageo plc, the British drinks company, is the controlling shareholder. It took control in 2012 to 2014 through share purchases and open offers that paid cash to shareholders who chose to sell. Families who did not sell kept their United Spirits shares.

Who is the registrar (RTA) for United Spirits?
Integrated Registry Management Services Private Limited, in Bengaluru. It handles demat requests, KYC updates, unclaimed dividends, duplicate certificates, transmission and IEPF entitlement letters for United Spirits, including the old folios of Shaw Wallace, Herbertsons, Balaji Distilleries and Pioneer Distilleries.

When are United Spirits shares transferred to the IEPF?
When dividends on a folio have gone unclaimed for seven years in a row. United Spirits moved such shares in yearly batches between 2017 and 2021, tied to the dividends it paid up to 2013. It then paid no dividends until November 2023, so the first of the new dividends falls due for the IEPF around the end of 2030.

How do I claim United Spirits shares from the IEPF?
Open a demat account, complete KYC with Integrated Registry Management Services and get an entitlement letter. Then file Form IEPF-5 on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs website and send the signed form, the original indemnity bond, a copy of your Aadhaar, the original certificates or other proof of entitlement and a cancelled cheque to the company’s nodal officer. The company has 30 days to verify the claim and the IEPF Authority 60 days to decide.

I have lost my McDowell or United Spirits share certificate. What do I do?
If the shares are still with the company, open a demat account, then apply to Integrated Registry Management Services for duplicate shares with Form ISR-4. Up to ₹10 lakh, about 723 United Spirits shares at today’s price, you need a standard affidavit-cum-indemnity bond. Above that you also need a police report and a newspaper notice. Just 145 shares on a ₹10 McDowell certificate are already above ₹10 lakh. If the shares have gone to the IEPF, you claim them with Form IEPF-5 instead.

What if the United Spirits shareholder has died?
The shares pass to the nominee or legal heirs by transmission through Integrated Registry Management Services, and are credited in demat. Simplified documents apply to physical shares worth up to ₹10 lakh per company, which with United Spirits is about 723 of today’s shares. Above that, heirs usually need a succession certificate or legal heir certificate unless there is a nominee or the other heirs give no-objection.

Do I have to pay SharesRecover anything upfront?
No. Zero advance — you pay only once the shares are credited to your demat account.