Public offer and private placement
📚 Law Minded summary
There are only two lawful ways for a company to raise money by issuing securities, and this section names them.
A public company can make a public offer through a prospectus, or go the private placement route to a selected group. A private company can only do the second — it may not invite the public to subscribe at all.
Everything else in this Chapter hangs off that split: Part I governs public offers, Part II governs private placements.
(1) A public company may issue securities—
(a) to public through prospectus (herein referred to as “public offer ”) by complying with the provisions of this Part; or (b) through private placement by complying with the provisions of Part II of this Chapter; or (c) through a rights issue or a bonus issue in accordance with the provisions of this Act and in case of a listed company or a company which intends to get its securities listed also with the provi sions of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992 (15 of 1992) and the rules and regulations made thereunder.
(2) A private company may issue securities—
(a) by way of rights issue or bonus issue in accordance with the provisions of this Act; or (b) through private placement by complying with the provisions of Part II of this Chapter. 5[
(3) Such class of public companies may issue such class of securities for the purposes of listing on permitted stock exchanges in permissible foreign jurisdictio ns or such other jurisdictions, as may be prescribed.
(4) The Central Government may, by notification, exempt any class or classes of public companies referred to in sub-section (3) from any of the provisions of this Chapter, Chapter IV, section 89, section or section 127 and a copy of every such notification shall, as soon as may be after it is issued, be laid before both Houses of Parliament.] Explanation.—For the purposes of this Chapter, “public offer” includes initial public offer or further public offer of securities to the public by a company, or an offer for sale of securities to the public by an existing shareholder, through issue of a prospectus.
All sections in Chapter III — Prospectus and Allotment of Securities