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Road map to going public: IPO line Going Public

IPO line Going Public The road map to going public

Get a clear idea of all the main steps in Going Public

An IPO offers a world of opportunities: an enhanced public profile, accelerated growth and a more favourable competitive position. However, the step of going public must be prepared thoroughly. The IPO process starts long before the first day of trading. From the decision to go public until the initial listing, issuers must undergo a number of processes. Among other steps, these include: recruiting appropriate partners, assessment whether the requirements for going public are met through due diligence, elaborating the issuing concept and the equity story as well as setting up an efficient corporate organization.

We support you in optimally laying the foundations for your IPO – step by step from the first price determination on the trading floor of FWB® the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Regulated Market

For admission to listing in the Regulated Market, statutory EU-uniform requirements and follow-up obligations have to be met. At Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse you may choose between the General Standard and the Prime Standard, the sub segment with higher transparency requirements.

Detailed information Regulated Market Listing process Regulated Market

Open Market

The Open Market (Regulated Unofficial Market) is the segment where only marginal formal inclusion requirements and no follow-up obligations have to be met. In Open Market, there are national and international companies whose securities are included in trading in a simple and speedy manner.

Detailed information Open Market Listing process Open Market

General

The Regulated Market is a EU-Regulated Market and an organized market in the meaning of Sect. 2 Paragraph 11 of the German Securities Trading Act (WpHG). The admission requirements and follow-up obligations applying here are governed by law and are based on European law and, therefore, correspond to EU-uniform requirements. Above all, they are regulated in the German Stock Exchange Act, German Stock Exchange Listing Act, in the Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 as well as in the Exchange Rules. In contrast to the Open Market organized under private law, the Regulated Market is a market segment regulated by public law.

Issuers in the Regulated Market comply with high requirements applicable throughout the entire EU. Thus, the Regulated Market is specifically meant for large and medium-sized companies who are willing and capable to comply with these requirements and who wish to address both national and international investors.

Various segments

Depending on the objectives the company strives for with their stock exchange listing, the investors the company mainly wishes to address and the extent of transparency the company wants to safeguard, companies may choose in the Regulated Market at Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse between the General Standard or the Prime Standard, which is a partial segment bearing increased transparency requirements.

The Prime Standard is a partial segment of the Regulated Market bearing additional admission follow-up obligations. The access requirements and particular follow-up obligations are set forth in the Börsenordnung für die Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse [Exchange Rules for FWB]. The Management Board of Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse will decide upon application on the admission to the Prime Standard. The application may be submitted jointly with the application for admission to the Regulated Market (General Standard). Insolvency proceedings must not have been applied for or opened in respect of the company's assets. This applies accordingly for companies based abroad. Unless the Management Board has, beyond that, knowledge of circumstances indicating that the company will not or not orderly perform the additional follow-up obligations, the stock or certificates representing stock have to be admitted to the Prime Standard. Such circumstances are regularly presumed when a company, which has already admitted securities, has not fulfilled or not properly fulfilled its obligations arising from the admission.

The follow-up obligations applying to the Prime Standard exceed the follow-up obligations of the General Standard and have to be performed in addition to these. Thus, the Prime Standard at Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse and even all throughout Europe is the segment bearing the highest requirements.
The additional admission follow-up obligations of the Prime Standard are not only characterised by their higher degree of transparency requirements, but, above all, by the demand to comply with these requirements also in the English language as a rule. So the Prime Standard is the right choice for issuers who specifically wish to present their company to international investors.

You can find detailed information on the course of the admission procedure under the station “Admission Procedure“. For further information about the particular follow-up obligations of the Prime Standard, please see the corresponding stations of the “Being Public-Line”.

 

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