IPO Readiness

An Initial Public Offering (IPO) offers companies a promising strategic option for long-term financing through equity. An IPO, however, is a very complex and challenging project, both in terms of time and content, which should not be underestimated. The necessary measures to get ready for an IPO lead, for example, to an increase in the workload for employees since the normal day-to-day business must continue to be handled in addition to the IPO preparation. It should therefore be ensured that the numerous interdependent topics and tasks are prepared, analyzed and managed in the best possible way.

Getting a company ready for an IPO, its public listing and ability to be publicly listed usually requires changes in the entire company, the organization and the corporate culture. One reason for this is that publicly listed companies are subject to greater disclosure obligations and greater transparency. Furthermore, the relevance of compliance and corporate governance issues is rising. 

Challenges to IPO Readiness

The main challenges to getting a company ready for an IPO include the following points.

• The conversion of accounting to IFRS and the ensuring of future reporting obligations
• Implementation of a risk management system (RMS)
• Ensuring other requirements: Preparation of an IPO due diligence and a stock exchange prospectus, execution of numerous valuations, establishment of an internal control system (ICS)
• Project management

In addition, internal processes, both for going public and being public, must be optimized or often created for the first time due to considerable disclosure obligations and fixed schedules for reporting.

IPO Readiness – WTS Advisory Services

WTS Advisory has extensive experience in IPOs and M&A transactions for companies of all sizes and in a wide range of industries. In doing so, we offer independent expertise as well as professional advice at eye level. As a result, WTS Advisory's clients benefit from the highest quality and a unique customer focus. The IPO-experienced specialists of WTS Advisory, with know-how from numerous IPOs and IFRS conversions, support you, for example, in the identification of business conversion issues and point out possible alternatives.

If an IFRS conversion is required in the course of an Initial Public Offering, WTS Advisory also supports its clients in this regard and provides the WTS Advisory Conversion Tool for a system-supported transition or assists in mapping the parallel accounting in your ERP system. In addition to the entire IPO support (IFRS conversion, risk management, financial due diligence, etc.), our range of services also includes ongoing support during the Being Public process. This includes, for example, business support for ongoing accounting in accordance with IFRS or for upcoming M&A activities.

Further services of WTS Advisory in connection with IPO readiness are the procedural support in setting up a risk management system (RMS) and the three implementation of an internal control system (ICS), the business management issues in the context of the preparation of the stock exchange prospectus (among others management discussion and analysis), the execution of an IPO financial due diligence as well as the support for business management issues in the topic of investor relations.

In addition, we provide support in the preparation of a compensation report, segment reporting, calculation of earnings per share and requirements for the management report from a business management perspective.

Our Project Approach for IPO Readiness

If you are interested or have any questions, please contact us.