You applied for an IPO, the issue was subscribed many times over, and now you are wondering whether you will actually get any shares. This is where IPO allotment comes in — the process that decides who gets what after the bidding closes.
The basics
When an IPO closes, the total demand is compared against the number of shares on offer, split across three main investor categories:
- QIB — Qualified Institutional Buyers (mutual funds, banks, foreign investors)
- NII — Non-Institutional Investors, also called HNIs
- Retail — individual investors applying for up to ₹2 lakh
Each category has a reserved portion of the issue. Allotment is worked out within each category, based on how heavily that category was subscribed. You can see category-wise demand for current issues on our IPO subscription page.
What happens when an IPO is oversubscribed
If a category is subscribed less than once, everyone in it gets a full allotment. The interesting case is oversubscription.
For retail investors, SEBI rules guarantee that allotment happens in whole lots — you cannot be given a fraction of a lot. So when retail demand exceeds supply, the registrar runs a computerised lottery: applications are drawn at random, and winners each receive one lot. Applying for more lots does not improve your odds in the retail category once it is oversubscribed — every retail application competes as a single entry for the minimum lot.
For NII and QIB, allotment is proportionate to the size of the bid rather than a lottery.
The registrar's role
The registrar (companies such as KFin Technologies, MUFG Intime, Bigshare or Cameo) is the agency that processes applications, runs the allotment, and publishes the results. Every IPO names its registrar in the offer document, and that is where the official allotment status is eventually posted.
The typical timeline
For a mainboard IPO, the sequence usually runs:
- Issue closes
- Basis of allotment finalised (about one working day later)
- Allotment status goes live on the registrar's site
- Refunds / unblocking of application money for unsuccessful bids
- Shares credited to demat accounts
- Listing on NSE and/or BSE
You can follow every one of these dates for a given issue on its IPO detail page. Once allotment is out, check your status directly on the registrar's portal — ipostation links you straight to the correct registrar for each IPO rather than asking for any personal details.
This article is for information only and is not investment advice.