There are many ways in which a company rewards its shareholders. Some of the common ways are issuing dividends, bonus shares or even issuing right shares. A Rights Issue is a process when a company invites its existing shareholders to purchase additional shares of a company. The company generally issue these shares at a discounted price and give the shareholders a specific time window to participate in the issue.

It is important to note that a rights issue is not open to the general public. It is only available for existing shareholders, and that too in the proportion to their existing holdings.

The shares offered in the rights issue can either be fully or partly paid. It is voluntary on behalf of shareholders to participate in the rights issue as they can also opt-out of purchasing the additional shares. The rights issue can be partly transferred to other investors with trading of the rights entitlements.