How a review is made, and what it can and cannot tell you.
Every review applies the same published checks to the offer document itself. Figures are read from the document with their page, calculations are done by code, and the points that matter most are checked by a person before publication.
Five stages
Read
The whole offer document, page by page, with its chapters located and its printed page numbers matched.
Extract
Each figure and fact is read with the page it comes from and the sentence it was read from.
Verify
Every value is matched against its cited page. Anything that cannot be matched is withheld, never used.
Calculate and check
Ratios, shares and changes are worked out by code, then the 135 checks are applied the same way every time.
Human check
Every point marked read closely is checked by a person against its page before the review is published.
What each result means
To read closely. The document shows something a careful reader would want explained. The question to ask, and the page to read, are given with it.
Worth checking. A point that may matter, depending on the context the document gives. Worth a look, not necessarily a concern.
No concern found. The check was applied and the document did not show the pattern it looks for.
Could not be assessed. The document did not give, or we could not reliably read, what the check needs. Often a figure left blank until the price is set.
Not applicable. The check does not apply to this kind of business or offer: a lender's inventory, or how proceeds are spent when the company receives none.
A point is a question, not a conclusion. It shows where the document deserves a careful read. It is not a finding of wrongdoing, and not a view on whether to apply.
135 checks in 14 categories
A · Use of proceeds and issue structure (18). Where the money goes, and on what evidence.
B · Promoters, capital and share history (14). Who paid what, and when.
C · Earnings quality and cash flow (11). Whether profit turns into cash.
D · Working capital and balance sheet (11). Receivables, inventory and their trend.
E · Revenue, concentration and operations (18). Customers, suppliers, capacity.
F · Related parties and group entities (10). Dealings with insiders and their companies.
G · Leverage and solvency (6). Debt against equity and earnings.
H · Audit, accounting and restatement (8). Auditor changes, qualifications, restatements.
I · Board, management and track record (7). Who runs the company, and turnover.
J · Litigation, tax and contingent liabilities (10). Cases, demands and claims.
K · Valuation and pricing basis (7). How the price compares with peers and history.
L · Business dependencies (5). Brands, premises, licences, currency.
M · Disclosure quality and consistency (6). Whether the document agrees with itself.
N · Intermediaries and issue process (4). Lead managers' record and conflicts.
Each check names its sources: SEBI's disclosure regulations (ICDR), financial and credit analysis, governance practice, audit standards, forensic accounting, and precedent from past offerings. Some checks apply only to certain businesses: lenders, for example, are not judged on manufacturing capacity.
What is automatic, and what a person checks
Automatic
Locating chapters, matching every figure to its cited page, all calculations, and applying the checks. The same code runs on every document, so results are comparable across IPOs.
AI-assisted, then verified
Reading figures and facts from the text. Nothing read by AI is used unless it is found on the page it cites; the share withheld is shown on each review.
Checked by a person
Every point marked read closely, against its cited page, before publication. Checks that found no concern are not individually reviewed by hand.
Corrections and changes
Every point has a "Report a correction" link. Each report is checked against the page. When a rule is improved, every published review is rebuilt under the new rulebook, and points already verified by hand are kept as tests, so a later change cannot quietly undo them.
When a company files an addendum or an RHP, the review is updated, and the comparison shows what changed and why.
What is covered
We review a growing selection of mainboard and SME offer documents, not yet every IPO filed. Each review names the document and its date, and the IPO calendar shows which filings have a review.
Reviews describe what the documents say. They are not investment advice, and Review DRHPs is not connected with SEBI, the stock exchanges or the issuers.