A situation in which the demand for an initial public offering of securities exceeds the number of shares issued.




Taobiz explains Oversubscribed
The goal of a public offering usually is to price the security issue at the exact price at which all the issued shares can be sold to investors, so there will be neither a shortage nor a surplus of securities. If there is more demand for a public offering than there is supply (shortage), it means a higher price could have been charged and the issuer could have raised more capital.