IPO Allotment

IPO allotment of shares is a long sequence of events that takes place when a private company is going public and offering its shares to the general public in order to raise funds from them.

Now, to understand how the IPO allotment of shares takes place, let us first understand in brief, the steps involved in an IPO Process overall and of course what all it takes for an IPO launch.

IPO Allotment Process

Initially, a merchant banker/underwriter is appointed by the company that is launching the IPO. With its assistance, a registration statement is prepared which is submitted to SEBI for its approval.

SEBI has the power to give a green signal to the registration statement or stop it from moving ahead.

If SEBI gives its approval to the registration statement, the company is now required to prepare the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP).

This prospectus needs to be prepared in order to safeguard the interests of the investors as it contains all the vital information about the company.

It is a lengthy document and reading it will take time but it is totally worth it because it will give you the true picture of the company.

If you are an investor, it is highly recommended that you go through the DRHP document before making any investment decisions into an IPO.

Here, at A Digital Blogger, all the IPO reviews are done after going through the DRHP.

DRHP contains crucial information like:

• Reasons for why the company is going public
• The intended use of proceeds of the IPO
• Business-related information about the company
• All the financial statements
• Management related information
• Risks related to the business
• Size of the IPO and approximate number of shares being offered to the public in the IPO
• How IPO Valuation was done

SEBI reviews the DRHP and gives its recommendations. Then the price band in IPO is decided between which the shares of the company will be offered to the public.

Meanwhile, the company is marketing the IPO through various media channels.

Then starts the process of book building.

In this process, the underwriter of the offer collects data from various investors of the number of shares they are willing to buy at what price within the price band fixed earlier.

When finally the pre-decided time of the book building process gets over, the final price at which the stock will be offered to the investors is decided.

This price is called the cut-off price.

Then comes the day of the listing of the offer and the listing price is decided based on the demand and supply of that particular stock on that day. Accordingly, the stock is listed at a premium, par, or discount of the cut-off price. A lot of investors take the advantage of listing gains on this day. But what is listing gain in IPO? If the IPO is listed in the secondary market higher than the allotment price, the investors can immediately sell the shares and make great profits. These are the listing gains.

Prior to this, the allotment of shares is done on the dates that they mention. Thus, click on the IPO that you want to know the date:

 

Now, let us try to understand the IPO allotment process.

At the time of IPO allotment, two cases can occur:

Case#1: When the number of applications for shares is less than or equal to the number of shares being offered – In this case, each investor will be allocated their desired number of shares.

If the number of applications for lots is less than the number of lots offered, the issue is called “Undersubscribed“.

This implies that most likely you will get the IPO allotment of all the shares you have applied for in that IPO. It is not a good sign for the IPO though since it failed to get due applications.

Case#2: When the number of applications for shares is more than the number of shares being offered – If the number of applications for lots is greater than the number of lots being offered, the issue is called “Oversubscribed“.

This implies that in case there is an IPO that is oversubscribed and has received an application for 1000 shares, it will receive only 250 IPO allotment of shares.

This is a good sign for the IPO as it had a higher demand for shares than it could supply back to the bidders.

It is important to know that during IPO allotment, investors can apply for shares under various categories, which are:

• Retail Individual Investors
• Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs)
• Non-Institutional Buyers
• Anchor Investor

To know how to apply for IPO, there are many different methods, learn how to apply for IPO through UPI.

Different cases of IPO allotment under the above-mentioned categories have been described below.

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IPO Allotment of Shares – Retail Individual Investors (RIIs)

Not less than 35% of the offer size is reserved for this category of investors.

Resident and non-resident Indian individuals, Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) who want to invest less than ₹2 lakh worth of shares apply for IPO allotment under this category.

As per SEBI, the IPO allocation for shares in RII category is made in lots. The number of lots being offered in this category is fixed according to the total number of shares being offered and the total number of shares in one lot.

For example: If a company wants to offer 5 lakh shares to RIIs and the lot size has been decided to be 50 shares per lot, then, the number of lots being offered will be calculated as follows:

Number of lots being offered in IPO = Total number of shares/Number of shares in one lot

i.e. Number of lots (in this case) = 5,00,000/50 = 10,000

Since the issues are often oversubscribed heavily in this category, SEBI’s rules make sure that the maximum number of retail investors that can be allotted shares of the IPO.

Allotment to retail individuals is done on the basis of the total number of shares offered in this category divided by the size of the lot.

This gives the maximum number of retail investors (Maximum RII Allottees) that can be allotted shares.

Once the process of receiving all the applications is finished, bids that are not submitted properly are eliminated through a simple computer process. After that, the total number of bids are counted.

If the number of shares applied for is equal to or less than the number of shares offered, all the applicants are allotted their applied number of shares.

In case of oversubscription, there can be two cases:

• Small oversubscription: In case of small oversubscription, first the minimum lot is allotted to all applicants and then, the balance shares are allotted proportionately to RIIs who applied for more than one lot.
• Large oversubscription: If the issue is heavily oversubscribed, it is not possible to allocate even 1 lot to all the applicants. So, the RIIs who will be eligible for the IPO allotment is determined through a computerized lottery process.
  The lottery system can be done on the basis of say, Permanent Account Number (PAN). So, if your PAN is selected, you will get the IPO allotment, otherwise, not.  

So, it is possible that many retail investors may not receive even a single lot despite applying to the maximum limit of ₹2 lakh.

Having said that, you may want to place multiple IPO bids to improve your chances of getting an allocation in case of highly anticipated IPOs.

For instance, this happened with many retail investors who desired IPO allotment of Alkem Labs and Dr Lal Pathlabs. The retail portion of their issues was oversubscribed up to three times.

To know the status of IPO allotment, the websites of BSE or NSE can be checked.

 

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IPO Allotment of Shares – Qualified Institutional Buyers:

50% of the offer size is reserved for this category. Commercial banks, mutual funds, etc. can apply through it. In the case of QIBs, the allocation of shares is at the discretion of the merchant banker.

IPO Allotment of shares is done on a proportionate basis.

For example, suppose an issue is oversubscribed 100 times. i.e. the number of applications for shares received is 100 times the number of shares offered.

Then, in this case, a QIB will receive 1/100th the number of shares it originally applied for.

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IPO Allotment of Shares – Non-Institutional Buyers:

Not less than 15% is reserved for this category. Resident Indians, companies, societies, etc. who apply for more than ₹2 lakh worth of shares fall in this category. In this case, IPO allotment of shares is done on a proportionate basis.

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IPO Allotment of Shares – Anchor Investor:

An anchor investor is that QIB which applies for ₹10 crore or more worth of shares through the book building process. Up to 60% of QIB category can be allotted to anchor investors.

Their offer price is decided separately. Merchant bankers, promoters or their relatives are not allowed to invest under this category.

Thus, in a sense, different kinds of investors are bound in different sets of rules and quotas when it comes to IPO allotment of shares.

You are advised to know these rules as second nature in case you are a regular investor in IPOs so that there is no space for any sort of confusion.

In case you are looking to invest in any of the upcoming IPOs, just fill in some basic details.

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