What is the difference between RII, NII, QIB and Anchor Investor?

Retail Individual Investors (RII) are those who can apply up to Rs 2,00,000 in an IPO. NRIs who invest less than Rs 2,00,000 are also considered to be as RII.

Non-Institutional Investors (NII) are those individual investors, NRIs, companies, trusts, etc. who bid for more than Rs 2 lakhs. They need not be registered with SEBI like QIIs.

Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB) is investor such as Financial Institutions, Banks, FIIs and Mutual Funds who are registered with SEBI. They are mostly representatives of small investors who invest through mutual fund schemes, pension schemes or ULIP schemes of insurance companies.

Anchor investors are those institutional investors who are offered shares in an IPO a day before the offer opens and they must apply for a minimum value of Rs 10 crore in the public issue. Thirty percent of the portion allocated for qualified institutional buyers will be available to anchor investor(s) for allotment. One-third of the anchor investors’ portion will be reserved for domestic mutual funds. Allotment to anchor investors will be completed on the day of bidding itself. Anchor investors have a lock-in period of 30 days from the allotment date.