Who are intermediaries in an IPO?

Merchant bankers, registrars, bankers and underwriters are Sebi-registered intermediaries, who perform different IPO activities -- from preparing draft offer documents to finalising the basis of allotment and crediting shares to the successful IPO applicants.

Merchant bankers, also known as book running lead managers (BRLM) in case of book built public issues, are responsible for the due diligence needed to prepare the offer document that contains all the necessary details about the company. They are also responsible for ensuring compliance with the legal formalities in the entire issue process and for marketing of the issue.

Registrars to the issue, on the other hand, are involved in finalising the basis of allotment in an issue and for sending refunds and allotment details, etc. These Sebi-registered entities electronically process all the applications and carry out the allotment process as per the prospectus. They are responsible for complying with the time deadlines of updating the electronic credit of shares to the successful applicants.

In addition, they are required to dispatch and upload refunds and address all investor-related queries after the issue is completed.

There are also bankers to the issue, who enable the movement of funds during the IPO process and, thus, enable the registrars to finalise the basis of allotment by making clear funds status available to them.

Finally, there are underwriters, who undertake to subscribe to the securities offered by the company in case they are not fully subscribed by the public.

All the relevant information regarding the four intermediates such as addresses, telephone/fax numbers, registration number, and contact person and email addresses, are disclosed in the offer documents.