Summary: A recent SEBI study on anchor investor exit behaviour examines 242 mainboard IPOs listed between April 2022 and October 2025, with 167 IPOs tracked for a full year. The study finds that the 30-day anchor lock-in expiry can be associated with greater downward price movement when a substantial portion of anchor shares is sold, while the 90-day unlock showed comparatively muted price impact. Anchor selling generally occurs progressively rather than being concentrated around lock-in expiries, with cumulative exits reaching 50.7% of aggregate anchor allotment by Day 365. Investor category also matters: FPIs exited approximately 60% of their aggregate anchor allotment by Day 365, compared with around 38% for mutual funds. Issue size showed differing exit patterns as well. For companies preparing to go public, the findings suggest that anchor participation should be viewed as the beginning of a longer transition in institutional ownership rather than simply a source of early IPO confidence. The study indicates that companies should remain prepared for continuing changes in institutional ownership and potential selling pressure throughout the first year after listing.
- Introduction
- Lock-in of shares allotted to the anchor investors
- What happens when the first lock-in (30 Day) ends
- What happens when the second lock-in (90 Day) ends
- But most anchors do not sell immediately after the lock-in ends
- FPI vs mutual funds: who is in the anchor book also matters
- For companies going public
Introduction
For a promoter preparing to take a company public, a strong anchor book can feel like an early validation of the IPO. Reputed institutions coming in before the issue opens can support price discovery and signal confidence to the wider market. But there is another side to the anchor story that receives far less attention: what happens to this institutional shareholding once the IPO is listed and the lock-in begins to expire?
A recent study on exit behaviour of anchor investors in mainboard IPOs by officers of SEBI’s Department of Economic and Policy Analysis offers some useful answers. It examines anchor investor behaviour across 242 mainboard IPOs listed between April 2022 and October 2025, with 167 IPOs also tracked for a full year. For companies considering an IPO, the findings provide an interesting perspective on how the shareholder base can evolve after listing.
Lock-in of shares allotted to the anchor investors
Since April 2022, shares allotted to anchor investors before the IPO are released in two stages. The entire anchor allotment is locked for the first 30 days after listing. After that, investors can sell half of their allotted shares, while the remaining half stays locked until the end of the 90th day. The purpose is to avoid a large volume of shares becoming available for sale all at once.
The bifurcated lock-in framework was introduced through amendments to the ICDR Regulations.
What happens when the first lock-in (30 Day) ends
But the end of the 30-day lock-in did not automatically lead to heavy selling. The important question was: how much did anchors actually sell once they were allowed to sell?
The study found a clear difference between IPOs with limited selling and those with substantial selling:
- When anchors sold 2.5% or less of their allotment, the average share-price movement between the 29th and 33rd trading days was about -0.4%.
- When anchors sold more than 10%, the average movement was approximately -3.5%, and the median decline was close to -6%.
These figures do not prove that anchor selling alone caused the price decline. Share prices can also be affected by market conditions, company-specific news and other investors’ actions. The more limited conclusion is this: when a large portion of the anchor shares was sold soon after the first lock-in ended, the stock generally experienced greater downward pressure around that period.
What happens when the second lock-in (90 Day) ends
Interestingly, the second unlock did not show the same pattern. Around the 90-day mark, share prices changed very little on average, regardless of how much the anchor investors sold.
This suggests that the 30-day unlock may be more sensitive when selling is concentrated. The 90-day unlock, however, did not appear to create similar price pressure in the IPOs studied.
But most anchors do not sell immediately after the lock-in ends
This may be the more important finding of the study.
For the 167 IPOs tracked for one year, the proportion of anchor shares sold increased steadily over time:
- 3.5% by Day 30
- 9.3% by Day 60
- 18.5% by Day 90
- 34.4% by Day 180
- 50.7% by Day 365
In other words, by the end of the first year, anchors had sold about half of the shares allotted to them at the IPO. The selling was therefore not concentrated around a single lock-in expiry. Instead, anchor ownership declined progressively throughout the first year after listing.
For an IPO-bound company, this shifts the perspective. The 30-day and 90-day lock-in expiry dates may attract considerable market attention because they are the first points at which anchor investors can begin selling their shares. However, these dates should not be viewed as the end of the anchor story. The more relevant period for the company may extend well beyond the formal lock-ins, as institutional investors continue to reassess their holdings and gradually adjust their positions after listing. In the extended sample covering 167 IPOs tracked for a full year, cumulative anchor exits reached approximately half of the aggregate anchor allotment by the end of the first year. The transition in the shareholder base is therefore typically a gradual, year-long process rather than a single event concentrated around the two lock-in expiries. The impact is that companies must be prepared for a continuing shift in institutional ownership and potential selling pressure well beyond the initial lock-in dates.
FPI vs mutual funds: who is in the anchor book also matters
The study also shows that anchors do not behave uniformly.
FPIs and mutual funds together accounted for more than 82% of anchor allotment value in the 242 IPOs studied. Yet their holding patterns were markedly different.
By Day 365, FPIs had exited approximately 60% of their aggregate anchor allotment, compared with around 38% for mutual funds. FPIs accounted for approximately ₹22,474 crore of exits during the period, while the corresponding figure for mutual funds was ₹12,228 crore.
Issue size also appears relevant. Among the IPOs tracked for a year, the smallest issue-size bucket of ₹250 crore or less recorded a 72.5% weighted exit by Day 365, compared with 40.8% for the ₹1,001–2,500 crore bucket. The study suggests that anchor exits do not move in a straight line with issue size, with both smaller and larger issues showing higher exit levels than the middle-sized issue categories.
For companies going public
Read together, these findings suggest that the anchor book is best understood as the starting point of a longer transition in institutional ownership after listing.
For promoters and management teams, the size and quality of anchor participation remain important. But the study shows that anchors may gradually reduce their holdings after the lock-in periods, with the pace of exit varying across investor categories and IPO sizes.
That is not necessarily a negative signal. Institutions invest with different mandates and time horizons, and selling is a normal part of the market. The more important question is whether the company is prepared for this change in ownership.
Anchors can help build confidence at the time of the IPO. But once listed, the company must sustain that confidence through performance, communication and a broader, more stable investor base.
