At the core, the function of a stock market is to help companies to raise cash. The benefit of being a listed company is that you get to tap on the equity market to raise money beyond what was raised during the initial public offering (IPO). There are two main methods that companies use when raising money from the markets. They can either do a private placement or a rights issue. A private placement involves the sale of shares by the company to an external investor who is not an existing shareholder of the company. The placement shares are often priced at a discount to the last traded price to entice the investor to purchase a large block of shares. Such sales have the effect of diluting the earnings per share of the business as the total net profit of the company is now divided by a larger issued share capital base....