IPO is the initial public offering of a company. It is the first step taken by the organization to raise capital through the stock market. When a company wants to go public then the first thing that they should do is hiring an investment bank. The company must have a good team of managers and professionals who are capable of guiding the company when the company goes public. The investment bank will help the company to decide about the amount of money that they can raise, the type of securities that can be issued etc. This is done by a group of underwriters. After all the details of the IPO are decided then the investment bank sends the registration statement to the Securities Exchange Commission.
In US , NYSE and NASDAQ are the significant stock exchanges. The IPO process in the US takes almost 14 to 16 weeks, from organizational meetings to closing.It comprises organizational meeting, drafting, due diligence, legal and other documentation, determines listing venue, valuation update with an investment bank, syndicate equity research analyst briefing, roadshow presentation, and marketing strategy, receiving and addressing SEC comments, registration statement and other documentation, launch IPO.Before launching IPO, SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) registration has to be made, which include three different aspects such as regulatory, marketing, and liquidity protection. Therefore, these are the brief explanation about the IPO process in US country.The registration statement contains information about the company, their financial statements, corporate governance norms etc. The symbol of the company, after it gets listed is also decided by the SEC. After the registration statement is put in the SEC, it takes some time to verify the details of the organization.
This period is known as the cooling off period. Once the SEC is convinced about the details and the information given by the company then the IPO of the company is introduced in the stock market.