How IPO allotment works

An IPO offers a fixed number of shares. When applications exceed that number — which is what 'oversubscribed' means — not everyone can be allotted, and a rationing method decides who is.

This is why an IPO subscribed 50 times leaves most retail applicants with nothing. It is not an error or a failed application; it is arithmetic.

Every issue is split into reserved portions: Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB), Non-Institutional Investors (NII, sometimes called HNI), and retail individual investors. Each portion is filled from applications in that category only.

This matters when you read subscription figures. A total of '30x subscribed' can hide a weak QIB portion and an enormous retail one, or the reverse. The category breakdown is more informative than the headline number, which is why this site shows it per IPO.

For retail applicants, SEBI's rules aim to give the maximum number of applicants at least one lot. When the retail portion is oversubscribed, the minimum lot is allotted to as many applicants as possible by a computerised random draw supervised by the registrar.

The practical consequence is important and widely misunderstood: applying for more lots does not improve your chance of getting one. In an oversubscribed issue, one application for five lots is generally treated as one entry in the same draw as an application for one lot. Applying at cut-off price for the minimum lot, across genuinely separate applicants with their own PANs and demat accounts, is what actually multiplies entries.

Multiple applications under the same PAN are rejected outright, so this is not a loophole to exploit — it is simply how family applications legitimately work.

SEBI requires shares to list within three working days of the issue closing — the T+3 timeline. Allotment is finalised before that, typically the working day after the issue closes.

Money for unallotted applications is unblocked around the same time. Because funds are blocked via ASBA or a UPI mandate rather than debited upfront, an unsuccessful application simply releases the hold.

Once the registrar publishes results, you can check by PAN or application number on the exchange's application status page or on the registrar's own website. Registrars for Indian IPOs are typically KFintech, MUFG Intime (formerly Link Intime) or Bigshare.

No legitimate service needs your PAN to *tell you* an allotment is out — only to look up your specific result on the official site. Be wary of anywhere that asks for more than that.