The new reforms to the UK listing regime (Listing Rules) published by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) came into force on Monday 29 July 2024, marking the most significant change to the UK’s listing regime in 40 years as...more
The question of control is pivotal for startups and their investors. Startup founders naturally desire influence over their company's direction, but when external investors enter the picture, the dynamics of control often...more
This is the last publication in a series of Allen & Overy publications on the FCA's Consultation Paper (CP23/31) setting out its detailed proposals for listing rules reforms as part of its Primary Markets Effectiveness...more
History is often written by reference to “before” and “after.” In this blog, we posit that “before” refers to the “bull market” that ended in January 2022, and “after” refers to everything that – happened, is happening, and...more
Takeaways - Responding to a decline in the London Stock Exchange’s global market share of IPOs and other fundraising, a string of government-commissioned reports prompted proposals to reform the U.K.’s listing rules and...more
In their dataset and working paper, titled The Rise of Dual-Class Stock IPOs, Dhruv Aggarwal, Ofer Eldar, Yael Hochberg, and Lubomir P. Litov, find that the rise in the number of dual-class IPOs is tied to the increase in...more
The Indonesia Stock Exchange (“IDX”) lists an average of 30 companies per year, but this number is increasing, with 30 companies having already listed by September 2021. The IDX is an important player in Asian capital...more
London’s recent notable technology IPOs prove that European markets offer tech companies opportunities to achieve multibillion-dollar valuations and to meet their founders’ requirements. In an attempt to increase the number...more
The review of the UK Listing Rules was launched by HM Treasury (the Treasury) late last year and has made a number of wide-ranging recommendations of relevance for our tech and life sciences clients who have ambitions to go...more
Recommended changes include allowing dual class share structures for premium listed companies, changes designed to increase the attractiveness of UK listings for SPACs, and changes to the free float requirement....more
Lord Hill today published his recommendations following the UK Listings Review Call for Evidence in November 2020. The recommendations cover the Listing Rules applicable to Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs),...more
The FCA has welcomed Lord Hill’s recommendations from the UK Listings Review, launched by HM Treasury last November. The review has highlighted that the listing regime is in need of reform and now is the time to act....more
With a new U.S. administration, an economic rebound in sight and historically low interest rates that are unlikely to budge in the near-term, equity markets have been on a tear since late 2020. The torrid pace of technology...more
Survey Results - Life Sciences and Tech IPOs Continue Steady Pace in First Half - As we had predicted in our prior IPO survey, 2019 has proven to be strong for initial public offerings. Following a somewhat sluggish...more
Lyft, Inc. last week completed its highly anticipated initial public offering, raising over $2.3 billion at a valuation of approximately $25 billion, and turning its co-founders Logan Green and John Zimmer into near...more
Last week, Intelligize published The Unicorn IPO Report, which analyzes IPOs from 2016 through 2018. In 2016, the report notes that the AppDynamics IPO was days away from completion prior to its acquisition by Cisco for $3.7...more
In April 2018, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s (HKEx) rule amendments permitting the listing of innovative, high-growth companies with dual-class share structures and pre-revenue biotech companies went into effect. The...more
On July 17, 2018, the House of Representatives passed the JOBS and Investor Confidence Act (JOBS Act 3.0), a package of reforms consisting of 32 pieces of legislation principally designed to spur entrepreneurship by...more
After publishing the “New Board Concept Paper” in December 2017, the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the Exchange) issued a consultation paper on February 23, 2018, titled “A Listing Regime for Companies From Emerging...more
Dual or multi-class capitalization structures generally allow companies to sell large amounts of shares to the public while maintaining control in the hands of the founders and early investors. Popularized by the Google IPO...more
Below, a continuation of our bibliography of thought-provoking articles on issues related to right-sizing regulation, staying private versus going public, and related topics...more
The reported demise of dual-class stock appears to be, to paraphrase Mark Twain, "greatly exaggerated." The end of dual-class stock was predicted following the decisions this summer by the major indices, including FTSE...more