Book Running Lead Manager on WebNotes

Book building in Indian IPOs

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Book building is the price-discovery mechanism used in the majority of Indian Initial Public Offering (IPO) and Follow-on Public Offer (FPO) transactions, in which the issuer, through the book running lead manager (BRLM), solicits price-and-quantity bids from investors across all eligible categories during a defined subscription window, aggregates the demand schedule to construct an order book, and then selects a final issue price that clears the issue within the constraints set by SEBI (ICDR) Regulations, 2018. The term is borrowed from the analogous process used in international equity capital markets, where investment banks “build a book” of orders before pricing a new equity offering.

Book running lead manager (BRLM) in Indian IPOs

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A book running lead manager (BRLM), also referred to as a lead manager or book runner, is a SEBI-registered merchant banker appointed by an issuer to manage the preparation, filing, marketing, and execution of a book-built public offer of securities in India. The BRLM is the central co-ordinating intermediary in an Initial Public Offering (IPO): it prepares the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) and the Red Herring Prospectus (RHP), interfaces with SEBI during the regulatory review, manages the investor roadshow, co-ordinates with the registrar, the exchanges, and the sponsor banks, recommends the final issue price to the issuer’s board after the book-building process concludes, and files the final prospectus. Larger issues commonly appoint multiple BRLMs, in which case one or more are designated as “global co-ordinators” or “book running lead managers” and the others as “co-book running lead managers” or “co-managers”, with their respective responsibilities delineated in the inter-se allocation agreement.

Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) in India

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) is the preliminary offer document that an issuer files with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the concerned stock exchange(s), and the SEBI-designated public repository before a book-built Initial Public Offering (IPO) or Follow-on Public Offer. The DRHP precedes the Red Herring Prospectus (RHP) in the IPO lifecycle and serves as the document on which SEBI conducts its regulatory review. Unlike the RHP, the DRHP does not contain the price band, the lot size, the subscription opening and closing dates, or the final allotment methodology; these fields are left blank or indicated as “to be determined” pending the issuer’s decision after SEBI’s observations have been incorporated. The DRHP is a public document; SEBI posts it on its primary issues portal on the date of filing, allowing any member of the public, media organisation, analyst, or prospective investor to read and comment on it during the thirty-day observation window.