``It's always been one of the main objectives of the company to have a huge retail base and I am happy we could do this,'' commented vice chairman, HCL Technologies, Vineet Nayyar from Delhi, on the company's decision to allot shares to every valid retail applicant. The allotment has already been finalised and all the stock exchanges have also been intimated of the allotment.

The book building part of HCL Technologies Rs 823.60 crore initial public issue had opened for subscription on November 16 and was closed at the stroke of mid-night on November 25. The book building part had generated a total book size of Rs 20,100 crore, an oversubscription of 27 times. The retail part in the book building portion, through which 21,30,000 shares of Rs 4 were offered, was oversubscribed around 6 times that amount. The second part of the IPO -- the fixed price portion for the retail investors only -- is scheduled to open for subscription on December 10 and close on December 14. Through the fixed price portion, the company is offering 14,20,000 shares at Rs 580 each. The shares of the company are slotted to be listed on the stock exchanges at Delhi, Bombay and the National Stock Exchange.

Although Sebi regulations relating to IPOs stipulate that in case of oversubscription, allotments should be made on proportionate basis (manily through a draw of lots) and should not be arbitrary, the company going public has the leeway to make the allotments to every applicant provided other related issues, like lot size etc. are taken care of.

The HCLT's maiden public offering has been the largest IT public offering in the country till date. While Kotak Mahindra Capital Co and ICICI Securities were jointly the book running lead managers, DSP Merrill Lynch and JM Morgan Stanley were the lead managers to the issue.