All the existing shareholders of the company, at the time of the bonus issue, are eligible to receive bonus shares. Once the company announces a bonus issue, it also announces the date when the issue will take place. This is known as the Record Date. All the investors who are the shareholders of the company on the Record date will be issued bonus shares. Between issue announcement date and the record date, these bonus shares are known as cum-bonus. Once the bonus shares have been issued on the record date, they are known as ex-bonus.