Book Building

About Public Issues

Corporates may raise capital in the primary market by way of an initial public offer, rights issue or private placement. An Initial Public Offer (IPO) is the selling of securities to the public in the primary market. This Initial Public Offering can be made through the fixed price method, book building method or a combination of both.

More About Book Building

Book Building is essentially a process used by companies raising capital through Public Offerings-both Initial Public Offers (IPOs) or Follow-on Public Offers (FPOs) to aid price and demand discovery. It is a mechanism where, during the period for which the book for the offer is open, the bids are collected from investors at various prices, which are within the price band specified by the issuer. The process is directed towards both the institutional as well as the retail investors. The issue price is determined after the bid closure based on the demand generated in the process.

The Process:

• The Issuer who is planning an offer nominates lead merchant banker(s) as 'book runners'.
• The Issuer specifies the number of securities to be issued and the price band for the bids.
• The Issuer also appoints syndicate members with whom orders are to be placed by the investors.
• The syndicate members input the orders into an 'electronic book'. This process is called 'bidding' and is similar to open auction.
• The book normally remains open for a period of 5 days.
• Bids have to be entered within the specified price band.
• Bids can be revised by the bidders before the book closes.
• On the close of the book building period, the book runners evaluate the bids on the basis of the demand at various price levels.
• The book runners and the Issuer decide the final price at which the securities shall be issued.
• Generally, the number of shares is fixed, the issue size gets frozen based on the final price per share.
• Allocation of securities is made to the successful bidders. The rest get refund orders.