Free share that is given to a company’s existing shareholders is known as a bonus share. An issue of bonus shares is known as bonus issue or scrip issue or capitalization issue. These are additional shares given to shareholders without any additional cost. For example, if a company declares a 1:1 bonus issue, then every shareholder gets one share free for every share owned. So, a shareholder having 10 shares of a company will get 10 bonus shares, taking their total to 20 shares.