IPO Questions, Answered

Allotment is handled by the issue's registrar — usually Link Intime, KFin Technologies, Bigshare or Cameo. Go to the registrar's allotment page, select the IPO, and search using your PAN, your application number, or your DP ID and client ID. PAN is the easiest because you always have it. You can also check on the BSE website under Equity, or in your broker's app. Allotment is normally finalised one to two working days after the issue closes, and the registrar's site is often slow that day because everyone checks at once.

Subscription status shows how many times the shares on offer have been bid for, broken down by category: qualified institutional buyers, non-institutional or HNI investors, and retail. The category split matters more than the headline number. Strong QIB subscription indicates institutions with research teams have done the work and want the stock. A book carried mainly by retail demand with weak institutional interest is a less reassuring signal. Note that QIB bids typically arrive on the final day, so an issue can look poorly subscribed until it closes.

Indian IPOs follow a T+3 timeline, where T is the issue closing date. Listing happens on the third working day after the issue closes. In practice: the issue closes, basis of allotment is finalised the next working day, funds are unblocked for unsuccessful applicants and shares are credited to demat accounts, and trading begins on day three. SEBI shortened this from the older six-day timeline, so guidance you may read elsewhere about listing taking a week is out of date.

You apply in lots, and one lot is the minimum. For mainboard IPOs, SEBI requires the minimum application to fall between roughly ₹14,000 and ₹15,000, so that is the practical entry point. SME IPOs are very different: lot sizes there are typically ₹1 lakh or more per application, because the platform is designed for investors who can absorb more risk. Retail applications are capped at ₹2 lakh in total; bid above that and you are treated as an HNI, where allotment follows different rules.

One PAN can submit one application per IPO. If the same PAN appears on multiple applications, all of them are liable to be rejected, so you lose the chance entirely rather than improving it. What is permitted is applying from different PANs — your spouse, parents or adult children can each apply from their own PAN and demat account, using their own funds. Because oversubscribed retail allotment is a lottery on applications rather than on the amount applied for, several single-lot applications from different family members give the household better odds than one large application from one PAN.

It depends on the category. In the retail category, if the issue is oversubscribed, every application is reduced to the minimum lot and allotment is decided by a computerised lottery — so applying for ten lots does not make you ten times more likely to receive one. Everyone in the draw has the same chance per application. This is why applying for one lot from several distinct PANs is more effective than applying for many lots from one. In the HNI category, allotment is proportionate instead, so a larger bid does get a larger allotment. Money blocked against unsuccessful applications is released within a day or two of allotment.

You need a demat account and a trading account. Most retail investors apply through their broker's app or website by selecting the IPO, choosing the number of lots and a price (or bidding at cut-off, which means accepting the final price), and approving the UPI mandate that arrives on your phone. You must approve that mandate before the cut-off, or the application lapses. The alternative is ASBA through your bank's net banking, which blocks the funds directly in your account. Either way the money is blocked, not debited, and it keeps earning interest until allotment.

Mainboard IPOs list on the main NSE and BSE boards. They involve larger companies, carry heavier disclosure and eligibility requirements, reserve 35% of the issue for retail investors, and have minimum applications around ₹15,000. SME IPOs list on NSE Emerge or BSE SME. These are smaller companies, disclosure obligations are lighter, lot sizes usually run to ₹1 lakh or more, and — the part that catches people out — the shares trade very thinly after listing. A wide bid-ask spread on an SME stock can make exiting a position expensive or slow, so treat an SME allotment as an illiquid holding.

In a book-built issue the company sets a price band, and the final issue price is discovered within it. Bidding "at cut-off" means you agree to pay whatever that final price turns out to be, up to the top of the band. Retail investors are the only category allowed to do this. It is generally the sensible choice: if you bid a specific price below the eventual cut-off, your application is simply rejected and you get nothing. Bidding at cut-off means the full amount at the top of the band is blocked, and any difference is refunded if the discovered price comes in lower.

No. IPO investing carries real risk of loss. A meaningful share of Indian IPOs trade below their issue price within a year of listing, and listing-day gains are only available to those who receive an allotment, which in an oversubscribed retail book is a minority of applicants. An IPO is a company selling shares at a price it and its bankers chose, at a moment they judged favourable — that is not automatically a good price for a buyer. Read the offer document, particularly the risk factors and the stated use of proceeds, and apply only money you can afford to have locked up or lose.

Anchor investors are large institutions — mutual funds, insurers, foreign portfolio investors — allotted shares one working day before the issue opens to the public, at a price fixed within the band. The anchor book is disclosed publicly, and it is one of the more useful signals available to a retail investor, because these are professional buyers committing real money after their own due diligence. Look at who participated and how much they took. Anchor shares also come with a lock-in, part of which runs for 90 days after allotment, which limits immediate selling pressure.