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When you acquire shares outside of a standard on-market purchase, you need to record them manually in Sharesight. This article covers three common types of new share offers: entitlement offers (rights issues), share purchase plans (SPPs), and initial public offerings (IPOs).

Sharesight does not automatically handle any of these — you record them as a standard buy trade.

What is a rights issue (entitlement offer)?

A rights issue (also called an entitlement offer) gives existing shareholders the right to buy a set number of new shares at a fixed price, usually at a discount to the current market price. The number of shares you can buy is proportional to how many shares you already hold. Rights issues can be:

• Renounceable — you can sell your rights to another investor if you don't want to participate
• Non-renounceable — you can only accept or let the rights lapse; they cannot be traded

Find out more about rights issue →

What is a share purchase plan (SPP)?

An SPP offers eligible shareholders the chance to buy a fixed dollar amount of new shares at a set price (or slight discount), typically without brokerage. SPPs are offered in fixed tiers — for example, $2,500, $5,000, or $15,000 worth of shares.

What is an IPO?

An initial public offering (IPO) is the first time a company offers its shares to the public on a stock exchange. If you applied for shares in an IPO and were allocated some, you need to add them to Sharesight as your first trade in that holding.

Find out more about IPO →

How to record your participation in Sharesight

Whether you participated in a rights issue or an SPP, the steps in Sharesight are the same — record a Buy trade on the date the new shares were issued to your account.

1. Open your Sharesight portfolio.
2. Navigate to the holding for the company that made the offe (or click Add investments if this is an IPO and you don't yet hold the stock)
3. Go to Trades & income > Add trade or adjustment.
4. Trade type: Buy
5. Trade date: the date the new shares were allotted
6. Quantity: No. of new shares you received.
7. Unit/Price: Allotment price per share — this is the offer price stated in the SPP, entitlement offer, or IPO prospectus.
8. Brokerage: if any
9. Click Add.

What if I sold (renounced) my rights?

If you chose not to participate in a renounceable rights issue and instead sold your rights on-market:

1. Open your Sharesight portfolio.
2. Navigate to the holding for the company that made the offer.
3. Go to Trades & income > Add trade or adjustment.
4. Trade type: Sell
5. Trade date: the date the new shares were allotted
6. Quantity: No. of new shares you received.
7. Unit/Price: Allotment price per share — this is the offer price stated in the SPP or entitlement offer documentation.
8. Click Add.

Tips

• Use the allotment date (when shares were issued), not the closing date of the offer or the ASX listing date.

• The offer price is the cost base per share for your new shares — make sure it matches the price in the company's announcement or prospectus.

• If you applied for shares but the offer was scaled back (you received fewer shares than you applied for), only record the quantity you actually received.

• For IPOs, the stock may not be searchable in Sharesight until the company is officially listed on the exchange. If it doesn't appear yet, wait until the listing date and then add the holding.

• If you bought additional IPO shares on-market on listing day at a different price, record those as a separate Buy trade at the market price you paid.

• Placement share codes (XX, YY, ZZ suffixes): Some brokers issue trade confirmations using temporary placement codes before the stock lists — for example, VSLXX instead of VSL. Sharesight automatically maps these to the ordinary share ticker when processing the confirmation, so the trade will be recorded under the correct code. If you are adding a placement trade manually, always use the ordinary share ticker (e.g. VSL, not VSLXX) — Sharesight does not support placement codes as separate holdings.

Disclaimer

The guide above is a suggestion on how to handle corporate actions in Sharesight and is not financial or tax advice. We advise you to consult your financial advisor or accountant. We also encourage you to review the official company announcements for full details.