An Initial Public Offering is the formal name for a new issue of an unlisted company. It is often also loosely used to describe other types of issues. There will also be a prospectus or an offer document or prospectus that gives important details about the issue.
All issues have an issue form, which has to be filled up and submitted by the wannabe subscriber.
In normal circumstances, the rights issue is offered at a discount to the existing share price. A non-shareholder can also subscribe to a rights issue if some existing equity holder renounces rights in his favour. Other types of issues are of debentures and convertible debentures. Debentures are debt issues that pay interest and convertible debentures not only pay interest but also allow investors to convert them into equity shares at a later date. The Lead Managers and Bookrunning lead managers are the merchant bankers, who handle the details of pricing issues, determine issue size and perform a due diligence exercise on the company.