Tata Play, formerly known as Tata Sky, is the first company in India to adopt a confidential pre-announcement route for its initial public offering (IPO). Globally, countries such as the UK, Canada and the US allow the pre-submission of the offer document for review by the regulator, but this mechanism is new and little used in India.

In November 2022, the Tata Group company submitted a draft Red Herring prospectus (DRHP) to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as part of the confidential pre-notification to launch its public offering. The direct-to-home platform received its observation letter on April 26, implying a green signal to start the IPO.

SEBI introduced confidential pre-filing of IPO documents in November last year. As the term implies, in the case of a confidential pre-notification, the details of the preliminary documents are not shared with the public, unlike in the normal way where the DRHP is publicly available after it has been submitted to the SEBI. This confidentiality gives the companies the flexibility to change the issue size, the amount of new shares to be issued, or the offer to sell by existing shareholders pending the filing of an updated DRHP. Also, it aims to protect sensitive business information and provides flexibility for companies to decide whether or not to go public after the regulator has made its observations.

However, even in a confidential IPO, the DRHP will be released once the company files an updated draft of the Red Herring prospectus (UDRHP-I) with SEBI.