Taking a privately held company public is done via an IPO (Initial Public Offering). It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that an IPO is one of the important events in a company’s timeline. The company issues a specific number of share certificates at a stated price. Each shareholder then becomes part owner of the company, and each share can be bought or sold on the stock market where the company is listed.
In order to get to this point where the company gets listed, there are a huge number of requirements that the company has to fulfill. There are compliance issues, filings to regulatory bodies, and disclosures of the company’s financial condition. Once fulfilled, the benefits of a well subscribed IPO are massive and the company gets a big boost, in terms of cash and reputation.
The biggest benefit of an IPO is obviously the massive infusion of capital for financing ongoing operations and planned expansion of the business. It improves the company’s liquidity position and helps reduce debt. There is also a big uptick in brand recognition and trust in the company’s products and services.
To begin with, a registration statement is filed with the SEC along with a prospectus for the IPO. This details everything an investor would like to know about the company and its future plans. This is where the underwriters come into the picture.
Underwriters and the company’s accountants are required to work together to fulfill these regulatory requirements. They will provide the management with advice on shifting from a private decision making process to a public company answerable to the board and shareholders. The most important thing the underwriters do is help decide the price and number of shares that the market can absorb.
There are also changes in the way the company operates post IPO. Disclosures are mandatory, and the company has to file SEC statements and publish quarterly financial results. There’s also the AGM where the company has to answer to stockholders and important decisions about the direction of the company and its management are put to a vote. This is one big reason why companies hire new executives after an IPO, since there is a need for management who know how to run a public company.
How an IPO fares mostly depends on the company’s prospects and that of its sector. But IPOs fail all the time inspite of having sound basics and strong revenue models. There are many factors in play here, including the share pricing and quantity, the market and the timing of the IPO.
In Canada, for example, IPOs tend to be smaller than the ones in the US. They are also slightly under-priced because the market doesn’t have the same strong appetite for risk. European IPOs have to look at a lot more factors and have a smaller window, since problems in any EU member nation can affect markets in all the other nations.
Before 2001, when dotcoms were still in vogue, anyone with a website could file for an Initial Public Offering and watch the millions piling up as the markets kept going up. What investors want now is a safe company with lots of assets to its name and long term growth prospects. For any business that can traverse this long road to IPO success, there’s a huge reward waiting at the other end.
In order to grow and expand, many companies will go through the IPO How process and make an Initial Public Offering (IPO) to the general public. A new IPO Prospectus valuation is usually made, and Canadian IPOs are becoming more common nowadays.