Any individual, corporate entity, or a partnership firm can invest in an IPO. The only prerequisite for investing in one is that you require an active demat account.

The IPO issue size represents the total number of shares and the total value of the shares being put up for sale by the company. On the other hand, the IPO lot size is the minimum number of shares for which you’re required to place an order.

You can get an application form for an upcoming IPO or a New Fund Offer (NFO) through various different ways. Here’s a quick look. You can get it from the trading portal of  WealthRhino, where you can also apply for the upcoming IPO online. You can get a physical copy of the application form from any of the branch offices of WealthRhino. You can get the application form from select banks or from stalls in front of the stock exchanges. And finally, you can also get it from the lead managers of the IPO issue.

Company with help of lead managers (merchant bankers or syndicate members) decides the price or price band of an IPO.

SEBI, the regulatory authority in India or Stock Exchanges do not play any role in fixing the price of a public issue. SEBI just validate the content of the IPO prospectus.

Companies and lead managers does lots of market research and road shows before they decide the appropriate price for the IPO. Companies carry a high risk of IPO failure if they ask for higher premium. Many a time investors do not like the company or the issue price and doesn't apply for it, resulting unsubscribe or undersubscribed issue. In this case companies' either revises the issue price or suspends the IPO.

Registrar of a public issue is a prime body in processing IPO's. They are independent financial institution registered with SEBI and stock exchanges. They are appointed by the company going public.

Responsibility of a registrar  for an IPO is mainly involves processing of IPO applications, allocate shares to applicants based on SEBI guidelines, process refunds through ECS or cheque and transfer allocated shares to investors Demat accounts.

Some companies allow minors to bid for their IPO and other doesn't. So it depends on IPO to IPO.

This information is usually provided under section "Who can apply?" of the IPO Prospectus.

For example:

Religare Enterprises Limited IPO prospectus says:
Indian national's resident in India who are majors, or in the names of their minor children as natural/legal guardians in single or joint names (not more than three) can bid for this IPO.

Power Grid Corporation of India Limited IPO prospectus says:
Bidders are advised to note that Bids are liable to be rejected on, inter alia, the following technical grounds - Bids by persons not competent to contract under the Indian Contract Act, 1872, including minors and persons of unsound mind etc.

Investor has to disclose age of the applicant in IPO Application Form.

Yes an individual investor can apply in Non Institutional Investors category of an IPO.

"Individual investors, NRI's, companies, trusts etc who bid for more then Rs 1 lakhs are known as Non-institutional bidders. They need not to register with SEBI like RII's. Non-institutional bidders have an allocation of 15% of shares of the total issue size in Book Build IPO's."

There are few advantages and disadvantages for retail investor to apply under non-institutional category of the IPO.

Advantage is that there is no upper cap on application amount. An individual investor can bid for any amount in this category where there is limit of Rs 100'000 in Retail category.

Disadvantage is that only 15% of total shares are part of Non Institutional Investors category. The Retail Individual Investors (RIIs) category has 35% of total shares available for investors. This means that Non Institutional category oversubscribed heavily and chances of getting allotment are much lesser.

You can but you shouldn't. It is because to avail a loan you will be paying interest rate, processing fee etc. This will make the cost of your investment capital high. Say, you took a loan of Rs 1, 00,000 for 1 year at the rate of 15%. The processing fee is Rs 2, 000. A simple calculation suggest that you will be paying Rs 1, 00,000 + Rs 2, 000 +Rs 15, 000= Rs 1, 17, 000 to the bank. This is 17% above the investment amount for the IPO.

Now there is an element of risk in any IPO. It may not open on higher price on the listing day or may go down. In such a case, you would be losing a higher amount. So, it's better to wait, save money and then invest.

The life cycle of a typical IPO consists of three distinct phases - a pre-IPO transformation phase, an IPO transaction phase, and a post-IPO transaction phase. The pre-IPO transformation phase is when the company complies with all the processes, procedures, and regulatory requirements.

IPOs tend to garner a lot of media attention, some of which is deliberately cultivated by the company going public. Generally speaking, IPOs are popular among investors because they tend to produce volatile price movements on the day of the IPO and shortly thereafter.

Once ‘Draft Prospectus' of an IPO is cleared by SEBI and approved by Stock Exchanges then it's up to company going public to finalize the date and duration of an IPO. Company consult with the Lead Managers, Registrar of the issue and Stock Exchanges before decides the date.

Primary market is the market where investors can buy shares directly from the issuer company to raise their capital.

Secondary market is the market where stocks are traded after they are initially offered to the investor in primary market (IPO's etc.) and get listed to stock exchange. Secondary market comprises of equity markets and the debt markets. Secondary market is a platform to trade listed equities, while Primary market is the way for companies to enter in to secondary market.

Yes, Since July 2006, SEBI made PAN number mandatory for IPO applicants. Forms submitted without PAN number or wrong PAN numbers are considered as faulty application and they are not considered for IPO allotment.

It's highly recommended that you double check your PAN number information before submitting the IPO application form. If you are filling the IPO application through online stock broker, make sure he has correct information.

Follow on public offering (FPO) is public issue of shares for already listed company. An FPO is a stock issue of additional shares made by a company that is already publicly listed and has already gone through the IPO process.

Basis of Allotment or Basis of Allocation is a document publishes by registrar of an IPO to stock exchanges and IPO investors. This document provides information about final price fixed for an IPO, issue subscription (bidding) information or demand of an IPO and share allocation ratio.

The IPO allotment information is categorized by number of shares applied by an applicant. For each such category detail bidding information is provided in this document including number of valid application received, total number of share applied, ratio of the allotment and number of shares allocated to the applicants.

Ratio of the allotment is a critical field for IPO's oversubscribed multiple times. This field tells how many applicants will receive single lot of shares among a certain number of applicants. For example, ratio 1:8 means only one out of eight applicant received one lot of shares; ratio value 'FIRM' means all the applicants are eligible to receive certain amount of share.

Book Building IPO: Yes an investor can revise bided quantity and price of an already applied Book Building IPO anytime if the issue is still open for subscription. Investor has to fill a revision form and give it to the syndicate member.