Anchor Investors and No Entry Load Funds - SEBI's Investor-Friendly Actions

SEBI, the market regulator in India, announced the approval of 'anchor investors' for public offers. This allows an individual or entity to subscribe up to 30% of the institutional share of an IPO, similar to a pre-placement agreement, and enforces a lock-in of 30 days on such investors. Since 50% of an IPO is typically reserved for institutional investors, this would mean upto 15% of the total offering could be given to an 'anchor investor.'

The bidding process for anchor investors will be done one day prior to the opening of the IPO for subscription. This would thereby impute confidence to the retail investors as they see a large investor taking a significant stake in the IPO.

This step is expected to stabilize public offerings and give an overall boost to the primary market. This could lead to concentrated shareholdings, though, and it is likely the general norms of any single investor holding over 34% stake in a company having to make an open offer will still hold.

Additionally, SEBI did away with entry loads on mutual funds, directing that commissions be paid upfront by investors to distributors. Fees on equity and debt were cut by 50%.

Investors will heave a sigh of relief with these actions, but the industry players will not be too pleased.

Transpicuous motives

Some words are easy to interpret but have many meanings - transpicuous is one of them. (Note: The word is transpicuous, not transpicous.)

When used in sentences, the word typically means easily understood. It comes from the Latin transpicere, to be able to see through. Thus, you get the other meaning of the word, not very common today, to be able to see through a person easily.

For example, this usage of transpicuous:

"The Sobieski Stuarts were amiable, scholarly men who won converts by their transpicuous innoncence." - Hugh Trevor Roper, in "The Invention of Tradition"

The Fiat Punto Grande - Now in India

Fiat, continuing its rise in the global auto industry, has announced the launch of its award-winning Fiat Punto Grande supermini cars in India.



This is a joint production with Tata Motors and is very reasonably priced between Rs 3.99 lakh and Rs 6.11 lakh rupees. The petrol versions will have 1.2L and 1.4L engines, while the diesel variant has a 1.3L multijet diesel engine.

“The launch of Grande Punto marks a new milestone for Fiat in India as we bring the quintessentially Italian designs to Indian shores,” Fiat India official said

This car is a 2005 model and was announced at the India Auto Expo in New Delhi in January 2009. Fiat's premium model, the Fiat Linea has been selling well in India.