Initial Public Offerings 2020

Introduction

For any company, the decision to go public is a key milestone in its development. By doing so, it enters the public arena and gets access to the capital market and a much broader investor base. However, a public company is subject to public scrutiny, and must also fulfil stricter regulatory requirements than a privately held company. To avoid unexpected difficulties or even failure of the project, an IPO candidate, its shareholders and its executive management should prepare the flotation carefully and familiarise themselves with the regulatory requirements.

One of the first steps during the preparatory phase is the selection of the listing venue, where Switzerland offers very attractive conditions through a combination of its strong financial centre and the stable and issuer-friendly Swiss legal and regulatory regime. This is the case not only for companies which were founded in Switzerland, but also for foreign issuers. In 2018, for instance, the two