Promoters and early investors of a company usually sell their stake during IPOs. However, they can also choose to sell their shares after listing as well. This is usually done through a process known as Offer For Sale (OFS).

The preferred conventional methods include investing directly in primary markets through Initial Public Offers (IPOs) or secondary markets through buying stocks directly from exchanges & Follow-on Public Offers (FPOs). However, companies have reduced going for FPOs after the introduction of Offer For Sale (OFS). The number of companies going for an OFS issue has been increasing significantly, and the trend is expected to continue as SEBI has relaxed OFS norms.

Bearing this in mind, we are excited to introduce the FYERS OFS Portal, wherein clients can apply for the OFS issues completely online. First, let us understand what OFS is before going into further details.

Offer For Sale:

Offer For Sale (OFS) is a mechanism introduced by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in August 2012, whereby shareholders having more than 10% of a listed company can offer their stake to the public through the stock exchange. The purpose of OFS is to provide an exit route to promoters and help them comply with the minimum public shareholding requirement of 25%.

How does it work?

Under the OFS mechanism, promoters offer their shares to the public through the stock exchange. The shares are allocated to eligible bidders through a bidding process. Who are the eligible bidders? Any Indian Citizen who has a Demat account with the SEBI registered brokerage can bid for the OFS online using the FYERS OFS Portal. The shares are allotted on a first-come-first-served basis, subject to availability.

How is it different from IPO and FPO?

In an OFS, shares are sold by existing shareholders (with a minimum of 10% stake) to the general public/institutions, not to raise additional capital for expanding the business but to reduce the stake or exit the business altogether. However, in the case of IPO & FPO, a company usually raises capital to expand the business, increase the working capital, or pay off debts.

In OFS, the number of shares will remain the same as there is no new issue of shares. The ownership is being transferred from the promoters to the public. Only the shareholding pattern changes, and it provides liquidity to the secondary market. Whereas in an IPO or FPO, the number of overall shares increases.

Another key difference is that, in an OFS, shares are not sold through a book-building process. As there is no price discovery involved, Investors know precisely how many shares they will be getting and at what price. This makes OFS a more attractive option for companies who want to avoid the volatility associated with IPOs/FPOs.

Is there any minimum bid value in OFS?

The minimum bid quantity you can bid is usually 1, and the maximum bid value set by the exchange in the retail category is ₹2 Lakhs. If the value of bids across exchanges from a retail investor exceeds ₹2 Lakhs, then these bids will be considered as invalid.

Benefits of Offer For Sale:

• OFS helps the companies comply with SEBI's minimum public shareholding requirements.
• OFS enables promoters or significant shareholders (10%>) of listed companies to exit by raising capital from the public.
• An OFS can be an excellent opportunity to invest in a company as the issue price (Floor price) will be set at a discount to the prevailing price, i.e., the current market price.
• After the OFS, the number of secondary shares increases resulting in high liquidity and volumes.
• Unlike with IPOs & FPOs, no minimum amount is specified for participating in an OFS. You can bid even for a single share through the OFS mechanism.
• The liquidity of the OFS stock in the secondary market will increase as the public shareholding increases.

Risks associated with Offer For Sale:

• As the OFS is a route that the promoters exercise to sell off their shares, you as an investor must be extra careful before applying for the OFS as it might be a ploy of the promoters to book profits in an overvalued company.
• Unlike IPO and FPO, the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) will be applicable in OFS.
• It is allowed to modify bids backed by 100% margins at any time during the OFS market hours (refer to this article). Nevertheless, those with zero percent margin can only modify the price and quantity upwards. Such bids cannot be canceled.
• In the short term, an OFS might result in a decrease in share price as the retailers might be alarmed if the promoter/s exit their stake in the company.
• You cannot bid for more than ₹2,00,000 in an OFS issue.

Procedure to apply for an OFS:

Earlier, the procedure for applying to an OFS was offline, wherein you had to fill in the forms and physically submit the documents. However, with today's online space, to make your experience seamless, we have introduced an online portal exclusively for OFS where you can complete the process in under 2 minutes. To know the step-by-step procedure to apply for an OFS issue, refer to this article.

For the library of FAQs for OFS, click here.

Conclusion:

An Offer For Sale (OFS) could be an excellent opportunity to invest in reasonably priced stocks. However, like any other public issue, you must keep in mind that there are also risks involved, and we highly recommend that you, as an investor to, do your research before applying for such an issue because you never know why big shareholders are selling. Using conventional wisdom, it is fair to assume that insiders know more about a company's affairs than retail investors. Hence, it is important to do a fair bit of due diligence before investing. We at FYERS always focus on enhancing our customers' awareness and overall investing experience. More exciting announcements coming your way, Stay Tuned!

If you're yet to join our 350,000+ community, Sign Up Now.

We're delighted to announce that NRI trading & investing services are now live at FYERS! It has been a long time coming, as many inquiries for NRI accounts have piled up over the last year. However, we put the launch on hold to pay close attention to the compliances and resolve operational challenges for NRIs around the world.

The Indian stock market has been on a tear in recent times. The Nifty delivered 60% returns in the last five years, and many stocks have become multi-baggers. As so much potential is yet to be unearthed, many NRIs residing abroad are coming to Invest in India. To help NRIs invest in India, we have a dedicated NRI desk to cater to Non-Resident Indians to trade and invest through FYERS.

Who is an NRI?

An NRI is an Indian Citizen or a person of Indian Origin who has resided outside India for more than 182 days.

How can I open an NRI bank account?

You can open an NRI bank account in any bank with the facility authorized by RBI. However, if you wish to open a PIS account (refer to this article), you're required to open an account in either of the banks listed below:

1. HDFC Bank
2. Axis Bank
3. Yes Bank

For Non-PIS accounts, an NRI can link any NRO Bank account with Fyers.

What are the documents required to open an NRI Demat account?

The documents you're required to submit to open an NRI Demat account are a copy of your passport, employment visa, or work permit (as applicable) and address proof (both India and residing country's address proof). In addition, a Portfolio Investment Scheme letter (as applicable), PAN card, photographs, and bank accounts are to be submitted along with the account opening form. These requirements are subject to change with regulations. For the latest details, refer to this article.

How much time will it take to open an NRI Demat Account?

Once the documents are received, The NRI Demat account will be opened within 3 working days for both PIS and Non-PIS, provided the documents submitted are accurate. 

Note: In the case of a PIS account, if the NRI does not have the PIS letter, it will take an additional 15 Days to get the PIS letter.

What are the charges for opening the NRI account?

You can open your NRI Demat for free at FYERS. The Demat Account Maintenance Charges (AMC) are also Zero. To learn more about the brokerage & other charges, click here.

Can an NRI trade in the F&O segment?

You can trade in the F&O segment if you link your NRO Bank account with us. Along with the NRO bank account, the Custodian Participant (CP) code is mandatory as per regulatory guidelines. A custodian is an entity that clears and settles the F&O trades on behalf of NRI traders. We've tied up with "Orbis Financial Corporation Limited" for custodial services. So, NRI traders/investors must get a CP code with Orbis to trade in the F&O segment at Fyers. You can invest in Equity and trade in the F&O segment using your NRO bank account. For more details, kindly refer to this article.

What is Repatriation?

Repatriation is the ability to move funds from a foreign country to India or vice-versa. In simple words, if you've linked the repatriable bank account with your Demat account, you'll be able to withdraw the funds in foreign currency. However, if you've linked the non-repatriable bank account, you won't be able to withdraw the funds in foreign currency.

For the library of FAQs on the NRI Demat Account, click here.

Conclusion:

Over the years, we've received increasing interest from the NRI trading & investing community. Despite their patience and persistent follow-up with us, we had to postpone it due to the excessive regulatory requirements. Now, we're very excited to have finally launched NRI services and offer our platforms to all Indian citizens residing abroad and looking for a reliable way to invest in the Indian stock markets. We're committed to serving your trading & investing needs for years to come!

To initiate the NRI Demat Opening, click here.

We heard you, all those tweets didn’t get missed. 

We are super excited to announce our partnership with Quicko. 

As we know, Tax Compliance is a huge burden for retail investors and is a complicated procedure. Therefore, to educate our community and help them ease this process, we have partnered with Quicko to help the customers with income tax planning and filling. 

Login to My Account or Go to fyers.quicko.com and login with your FYERS credentials; and here’s everything you can do:

Visualize your Tax P&L: With this partnership, investors and traders will be able to correctly classify their trades into capital gains, speculative & non-speculative business incomes; treat corporate actions such as dividends, buybacks & bonus issues, and optimize tax liability by offsetting current & brought forward losses. 

In simple words, clients can view all the bifurcations of different incomes made in the stock market and their applicable taxes without any hassles, as displayed in the image below:

As you can see, all the incomes are bifurcated to provide you with an overview of all the data, including the P&L that would take you hours if done manually.

Compare tax Regimes: Compare the tax liability under both Old and New tax regimes and choose the one that fits you the best. Under the Old tax regime, you can claim the itemized deductions, whereas, under the New tax regime, you’ll have to let go of the itemized deductions but can take advantage of lower slab rates, compare and choose which one suits you the best.

Based on the incomes, deductions under section 80, tax credits, etc., your tax liability will be determined under the Old and New regimes. You can choose the regime under which you want to pay the taxes out of the two.

Calculate and Pay Advance Tax: If you are an investor or a trader, you would have incomes under the head capital gains or business & profession, and therefore, advance tax should be calculated and paid quarterly. This partnership allows users to accurately calculate and pay the Advance tax directly, taking into account all incomes, deductions, and tax breaks.

Once you’ve entered all the details, you must pay the Tax liability displayed under the 'Advance Tax' Tab on a quarterly.

File ITR instantly: Login using the FYERS credentials to directly import all your equity delivery, equity intraday, and F&O trades. Once the data is imported, you can view the capital gains, business incomes, set off, and carry forward losses to file for taxes. However, if you are salaried, have rental income, or other income sources, kindly fill in the details in the respective columns. You can also connect with the Income Tax Department (ITD) account to pre-fill your incomes, deductions, and tax credits. Once everything is in place, you can instantly review and e-file for taxes.

As displayed above, to file the income tax return, you can click on ‘Resume’ and file your income tax returns for the desired assessment year.

Book a Meet: If you are just starting out and are unsure, you can book a MEET with a tax expert at Quicko and do your taxes confidently. For doing so, all you have to do is click on the ‘Meet’ option on the right corner of the page and click on ‘Book a MEET.’

This feature allows you to avoid manually filing for taxes and have a seamless experience with FYERS. So, what’s stopping you? Get started now with Quicko and put your taxes on autopilot!

For the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), you can visit here.

Do let us know your thoughts in the comment section!

We’re happy to introduce our brand new order window on FYERS web-based on the valuable feedback of our customers! We’ve incorporated many of the suggestions that we received from the community. Placing orders is now much faster and effortless.  

What's changed? A lot! Why? As we all know, timing is one of the most crucial aspects of trading, and hence, saving a few extra seconds while placing orders can make a big difference to your P&L! As a trader, you must have had many instances when you’ve missed out on entering or exiting some trades in just a few seconds and it surely doesn’t feel pleasant.  Keeping this in mind, we’ve built the new order window to help you place orders really fast so that you can increase your productivity to the maximum extent and reduce the risk of missing out on opportunities.

Now let us understand the various new additions, modifications, and terminologies in the 'New Order Window.'

Modifications

Order types:

Let us start with the order types. This was one of the most challenging parts for us because many beginners were not able to easily distinguish between the various order types.

To solve this, we’ve made the following changes as displayed in the table below:

If you're finding it hard to follow, please go through the video at the bottom of the article.

• Enable Buy or Sell at Market for the Market order and Disable the same to place a Limit order.
• Enable Trigger Buy/Sell to place Trigger order and Trigger limit.

Product types:

Previously, there were many products. However, it has been categorized primarily as Trade & Invest. Under trade, you can place Normal Intraday, Cover Order, & Bracket Order.

In contrast, you can place CNC orders and Carry Forward/Margin orders under Invest. The old and the new terminologies of the product types are displayed in the table below:

Added Features

We have added multiple functionalities to the order window that could add significant value. They are listed below:

• Basket Order: Enables you to add scrips to the basket in a single click without having to go to the basket order window.
• Add funds: You can directly add funds by clicking on this option.
• Hide order window: Helps you to hide the order window without losing the modifications made before placing the order.
• User Settings: A new panel in the user settings has been incorporated to preset the desired conditions to make the order placement smooth and straightforward. This customizable feature adds value to the users who trade consistently.
• Alerts have been included to help you keep your trades in check and alert you in case of crossing the condition such as Price, Stop-loss %, Order value (₹), and Max Loss (₹).
  • Price: Notifies when you place the order above or below the set percentage.
  • Stop-loss (%): Notifies when you try to place the stop-loss higher than the set percentage.
  • Order Value (₹): Notifies when your order value crosses the set limit.
  • Max Loss (₹): Notifies when the stop-loss is higher than the set condition.
• Preset features: The Preset features will help you set the conditions of the default settings to make your life easier in terms of order placements. Put up your requirements and save the panel.
• Position Sizing: This feature allows you to preset the percentage of funds to be utilized.
• Stop-loss/Take profit: It allows you to enter stop loss and take profit in actual price/points/percentage.
• Product Type: Using this option, you can set your default product type, such as Intraday, BO, CO, or Invest.
• Order Type: You can use this option to select your default order type, such as Market, Limit, Stop, or Stop limit.

Unchanged Features 

You may notice a few functionalities that are unchanged from the old order window, and they are as follows:

• Disclose Qty: This feature allows you to disclose only a part of your actual quantity.
• Validity: You can select the tenure of the order under this head.
• Margin Details: The details of the required margins and your available funds will be displayed.
• Buy/Sell Toggle option: Enables you to toggle between Buy and Sell without closing the order window.

You can refer to our Support Portal to understand the individual functionalities of the above features.

We hope this new feature enables you to save time and trade efficiently. We further pledge to work towards our products and adopt the simplistic ways of incorporating many more features and tools. 

Do share your thoughts in the comment section below. Happy Trading!

We're thrilled to announce that the Minor Demat Account opening is now LIVE in FYERS. Secure your child's financial future! To know the procedure to open a minor account, Click here

Ensure that you have a diversified portfolio with negligible risk. 

Analyze your portfolio here - https://myaccount.fyers.in/Statistics

Click here to learn more!

The much-awaited LIC IPO is finally here and will be open for subscription soon. The good news is, the government has reserved 10% quota exclusively for existing policyholders and there are reports indicating up to 5% discount for them. 

And what's more interesting is, in a first-of-its-kind, LIC has decided to create a 10% quota exclusively for existing policyholders and there are also reports indicating up to 5% discount for policyholders. 

Here's a quick guide on how policyholders can be ready for LIC IPO. Two prerequisites to be eligible under the Policyholder category are - 

1. PAN Details has to be updated in LIC records
2. Have a Demat Account with the same PAN which is linked to LIC Policy

Essentially, both the DEMAT Account and LIC Policy have to be associated with the same PAN Number.

How to link PAN to LIC policy for existing policyholders? 

Step 1: Visit - https://linkpan.licindia.in/UIDSeedingWebApp/

Step 2: Fill the form with details such as Date of Birth, Email ID, PAN, Mobile Number, Policy Number, etc

Step 3: Check the tick-box to agree to T&C. Enter the captcha code and click on the 'Get OTP' button. Verify the OTP to complete the process.

Please Note: You must update your PAN Details in LIC Policy by February 28, 2022 

How to verify PAN linking status ?

To verify PAN linking status, visit https://linkpan.licindia.in/UIDSeedingWebApp/getPolicyPANStatus and follow the instructions.

Open DEMAT Account: 

Having a Demat account is a prerequisite to participate in any IPO. At FYERS, You can Pre-apply for IPOs even before they are open to subscription.

Hurry up and open your FREE Demat Account with FYERS today and avail Zero Account Maintenance charges for a lifetime. Click here to open an account instantly

Adding nominees takes less than 5 minutes, and no documentation is involved. Investors are required to update nomination details in their Demat Account before 31st March 2023, failing which the accounts shall be frozen for trading or any other transactions. 
Visit our support to know more - 

https://support.fyers.in/portal/en/kb/articles/how-do-i-add-a-nominee-to-my-existing-demat-account

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