Rights issue

A process of issuing new equity shares where they are offered first to existing shareholders in proportion to their existing shareholding.

Existing shareholders have, under UK law, pre-emption rights. This means that they generally have first refusal on the purchase of any new equity shares.

See also

• Bonus issue
• Dividend irrelevancy theory
• Headroom
• Nil paid
• Option premium
• Pre-emption rights
• Trombone