Shelf registration

Shelf registration or shelf offering or shelf prospectus is a type of public offering where certain issuers are allowed to offer and sell securities to the public without a separate prospectus for each act of offering. Instead, there is a single prospectus for multiple, undefined future offerings. The prospectus (often as part of a registration statement) may be used to offer securities for up to several years after its publication. A shelf registration statement is a filing with the SEC to register a public offering, usually where there is no present intention to immediately sell all the securities being registered. A shelf registration statement permits multiple offerings based on the same registration. A shelf registration can be used for sales of new securities by the issuer (“primary offerings”) resales of outstanding securities (“secondary offerings”) or a combination of both.