Irish Stock Exchange to host #IPOready initiative briefing

On Thursday, the Irish Stock Exchange will host a breakfast briefing about its #IPOready initiative, which is supported by Enterprise Ireland and Invest Northern Ireland.

The briefing is aimed at companies on course for a stock market listing in the next five years, and will explain what the programme entails.

"If you're a scaling company that's ambitious for growth, with a strong track record looking for significant funding opportunities, that IPO [initial public offering] programme might be for you," says Paul Sweetman of Ibec's Irish Software Association, which is involved in promoting the event to its members.

“We sent it out to our membership trying to get cross-sectoral interest: med-tech, pharmaceutical and telecommunications, not just traditional digital technology software development companies.”

The Stock Exchange’s 15-month programme is targeted at companies that are generating revenues of at least €5 million and heading to double that. The commitment of senior management is a must.

“They’re looking for chairmen, CEOs, CFOs to get involved so they can prepare their companies for the IPO route,” he says. “For a lot of indigenous technology companies, it’s right up their alley.”

Though an IPO is a real “watershed” moment for many companies, he says others may decide to go a completely different route.

“They may prefer the venture capital model [but] there will be companies that it will suit,” Mr Sweetman says.