press trust of india, Mumbai, June 23: In a major revamp of IPO norms, markets regulator Sebi Tuesday made public offer investments cheque-free and also cut down the time taken for listing of companies by half to
six days.
While lowering of the IPO costs would help the companies and the investors, Sebi also allowed a larger number of companies to tap the ‘fast-track’ route for raising funds from markets from the existing and new investors.
Currently, it takes 12 days after the close of bidding in the Initial Public Offer (IPO) for a company to list on the stock exchanges, thus keeping the investors’ funds locked in for a longer period of time.
The shorter time period, which would come into effect from January 1, 2016, would also help reduce the costs associated with the public offering, Sebi chairman U K Sinha said after a meeting of the regulator’s board.
However, investors will have to wait for making the IPO process entirely online in terms of submission of their bids.
While Sebi has provided for online submission of bids from terminals of market entities, the same from any computer or mobile will take some time. Sinha said the full-fledged e-IPO would be introduced in due course.