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By IPOCheckr Editorial TeamLast reviewed
Anchor investors are large institutions that bid one working day before an IPO opens to the public. Up to 60% of the QIB portion can go to them, and their allocation is published before you bid. Half of an anchor's shares are locked in for 30 days from allotment and the other half for 90 days. Promoters and pre-IPO shareholders have their own, longer lock-ins. Expiry dates matter because shares that could not be sold before become free to sell.
Qualified institutional buyers applying for at least ₹10 crore in a mainboard IPO (₹2 crore on SME platforms).
Up to 60% of the QIB portion. 40% of the anchor book is reserved for mutual funds, insurers and pension funds.
50% for 30 days and 50% for 90 days from the date of allotment.
Minimum promoter contribution locked for 18 months; the rest for six months (longer if proceeds fund capex).
SEBI introduced anchor investors so that a large part of the institutional book is committed before the public issue opens. Anchors are qualified institutional buyers – typically mutual funds, insurers, pension funds, foreign portfolio investors and similar institutions. They bid one working day before the issue opens, allocation is completed the same day and the lead managers publish the names, number of shares and price on the exchange websites before bidding opens for everyone else.
Anchor allocation is discretionary, decided by the company and lead managers within SEBI's limits, unlike the proportionate allotment that applies to the rest of the QIB book.
As of November 2026 the ICDR Regulations set these limits for mainboard book-built issues.
Anchors bid at a price fixed for them, usually the top of the price band. If the final issue price after book building is higher than the anchor price, anchors pay the difference. If it is lower, they do not get a refund and are allotted at the anchor price. In practice most issues are priced at the top of the band, so the anchor price and the issue price are usually the same.
Since April 2022, anchors cannot sell half of their allotted shares for 30 days from the date of allotment and the other half for 90 days. Before that change there was only a 30-day lock-in on the whole allocation.
Worked example: an anchor is allotted 10 lakh shares, with allotment dated 10 March. Up to 5 lakh shares become free to sell after the 30-day lock-in ends in early April; the remaining 5 lakh after the 90-day lock-in ends in early June. The RHP and the exchange's listing notice state the exact dates and the number of locked shares.
Anchor lock-ins are short compared with those on promoters. Under the ICDR Regulations:
On a lock-in expiry date, a block of shares that could not be sold becomes eligible for sale. That changes the potential supply, which is why market reports often mention ‘anchor lock-in ending’ in the week it happens.
Eligible to sell is not the same as sold. Many anchors and pre-IPO investors keep their holdings well beyond the lock-in. What actually happens shows up in bulk and block deal data published by the exchanges, and in shareholding patterns filed each quarter.
For your own decisions, the useful step is simply to know the dates. The 30-day, 90-day and six-month dates are disclosed, so they should not come as a surprise.
Exchange subscription data for the QIB category normally excludes the anchor portion, because anchor shares are already allocated before the public issue opens. If an issue has a ₹500 crore QIB portion and ₹300 crore went to anchors, the QIB subscription multiple you see during bidding is measured against the remaining ₹200 crore. Keep that in mind when comparing QIB demand across issues of different structures – a big anchor book makes the public QIB slice smaller, not the overall institutional interest.
The anchor allocation document posted on the exchange website before the issue opens shows:
Primary rules and official pages this guide was checked against. Rules change, so the official text always prevails.
General information, not investment advice. Rules set by SEBI, RBI and the exchanges can change, so confirm current limits with your broker or the offer document.