ISLAMABAD: With the aim to help promote the primary market and to extend maximum facilitation to Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) in Pakistan, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has okayed the Book-Building Regulations 2015.
The decision was taken by the policy board of SECP to amend and upgrade the previous book-building regulations as they are not effectively enforceable due to non-applicability of these regulations to the book runners and non-availability of any penalty clause in them. The new book building regulations highlight that the total offer size should not be less than 25 million shares and the maximum bid size by a single bidder is 10 per cent of the book-building portion.
Book building is a common practice in developed markets and is being used in emerging markets as well.
