Reservation on Competitive Basis is when allotment of shares is made in proportion to the shares applied for by the concerned reserved categories. Reservation on competitive basis can be made in a public issue to the Employees of the company, Shareholders of the promoting companies in the case of a new company and shareholders of group companies in the case of an existing company, Indian Mutual Funds, Foreign Institutional Investors (including non resident Indians and overseas corporate bodies), Indian and Multilateral development Institutions and Scheduled Banks.

Initial Public Offering (IPO) is when an unlisted company makes either a fresh issue of securities or an offer for sale of its existing securities or both for the first time to the public. This paves way for listing and trading of the issuer’s securities.

The primary issuances are governed by SEBI in terms of SEBI (Disclosures and Investor protection) guidelines. SEBI framed its DIP guidelines in 1992. Many amendments have been carried out in the same in line with the market dynamics and requirements. In 2000, SEBI issued “Securities and Exchange Board of India (Disclosure and Investor Protection) Guidelines, 2000” which is compilation of all circulars organized in chapter forms. These guidelines and amendments thereon are issued by SEBI India under section 11 of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992. SEBI (Disclosure and investor protection) guidelines 2000 are in short called DIP guidelines. It provides a comprehensive framework for issuances buy the companies.

Rights Issue (RI) is when a listed company which proposes to issue fresh securities to its existing shareholders as on a record date. The rights are normally offered in a particular ratio to the number of securities held prior to the issue. This route is best suited for companies who would like to raise capital without diluting stake of its existing shareholders unless they do not intend to subscribe to their entitlements.

ASBA stands for Application Supported by Blocked Amount. The facility was introduced by SEBI in July 2008 to help retail investors apply in IPOs, FPOs and rights issue of companies, with ease.

Earlier while making an application in an IPO, an investor had to pay full application money at the time of submission of the application form. In ASBA, one can make an application for shares without actually parting with the money immediately.

The amount for application money is only blocked in the account of the applicant. The money is debited from the bank account only when the basis of allotment is finalised and also only for number of shares that are finally allotted to the investor. Money blocked under ASBA is unblocked fully or partly as and when the shares are allotted or the issue is withdrawn.

Thus ASBA eliminates problems associated with delay or non-receipt of refunds. Moreover, banks continue to give interest on account as also the money blocked in the account is considered for calculating the average daily / quarterly balances. Thus, investors are saved of hassles on refund deposits while continuing to earn interest on the application money.

Source: sptulsian.com

Dividend Payout ratio, or simply payout ratio, is the percentage of a company’s earnings paid as dividends to the shareholders. It indicates how well the company’s earnings support the dividend payment.

Dividend Payout ratio = Dividend per equity share X 100

Earnings per share (EPS)

E.g.: For FY10, a company had EPS of Rs. 10. It paid dividend of 20% (Rs. 2 per equity share of Rs. 10 each) for the year.

Dividend payout ratio = Rs. 2 X 100

Rs. 10

Dividend payout ratio = 20%

Source: sptulsian.com

Right of first refusal, abbreviated as ROFR, is the right of a person (investor) or company to purchase something before the offering is made available to others. If an investor /PE fund plans to exit the company, it is obliged to give the promoters or existing shareholders, an opportunity to buy the shares held by the PE before selling the same to a third party.

There are other rights for minority shareholders, such as:

Tag along right - contractual obligation which protects a minority shareholder in case the majority / promoter is selling out. Minority shareholder can compel stake sale of his stake along with the majority / promoter.

Drag along right – contractual right with minority shareholder to force the majority shareholder / promoter to join in the sale of the company. If minority shareholder is selling-out, it can compel majority shareholder / promoter to compulsorily offer their stake as well.

Source: sptulsian.com

For a public issue, you can know the status by calling the registrar (you will know about the registrar on the Highlights Page of the issue) after 30 to 40 days from the closing date of the issue. However, in a book building issue, you can know the status by calling the registrar after 20 days from the closing date.

Pay in day is the day when the brokers shall make payment or delivery of securities to the exchange. Pay out day is the day when the exchange makes payment or delivery of securities to the broker. Settlement cycle is on T+2 rolling settlement basis w.e.f. April 01, 2003. The exchanges have to ensure that the pay out of funds and securities to the clients is done by the broker within 24 hours of the payout. The Exchanges will have to issue press release immediately after pay out.

The FAQs relating to demat have been covered in the Investor Education section of the SEBI website in a separate head. They are available on the http://investor.sebi.gov.in/faq/dematfaq.html.