The 6 Largest Initial Public Offerings Ever
Learn about the high amounts raised in these IPOs
When a company goes public, it’s a great benchmark and a time to celebrate. Depending on the situation, some IPOs so huge that companies raised millions upon millions from the onset. Here are 6 of the largest IPOs ever. Read on to dive in!
How Does an IPO Work?
There are several steps in the process of reaching an IPO. Before a company IPOs, it is considered a private company and can accept private investments with a typically low number of shareholders.
Once the executive team feels like the company is in a good place to go public, it will start by finding an underwriter. The underwriter is selected from a group of investment banks and it will help lead the company to and through the IPO process.
Over the span of several months, a company’s management team, the underwriters, and the lawyers will all meet to kick things off and lay out what is needed in terms of legal documents, the business model, compensation, risks, and more. The company will file the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registration statement, and while the SEC reviews it, the underwriters will lead the company on a roadshow to gain interest from investors.
When IPO day comes, the investors from the roadshow are given their shares and then the company stock is traded on an exchange. Now, the company is public.
6 Big IPOs
Saudi Aramco, which is the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian multinational petroleum and natural gas business based on Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. On December 11, 2019, shares began to trade but only on Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange, called Tadawul. This IPO raised an incredible amount of $29.4 billion.
Alibaba is a Chinese multinational technology company headquartered in Hangzhou, China that provides online and mobile marketplaces in retail and wholesale trade. Its line of business segments includes cloud computing, digital media and entertainment, and core commerce. One of their assets is Alibaba Cloud, which provides services to organizations of various sizes access to servers for elastic computing, machine learning, and more. During their IPO in September 2014, the company raised $25 billion.
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Softbank is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company based in Tokyo. The company holds large stakes in many companies in the technology, financial, and energy industries, but also runs the world’s largest technology-focused venture capital fund with over $100 billion in capital. When Softbank IPOed on December 19, 2018, they raised $23.5 billion.
Agricultural Bank of China, also referred to as AgBank, was founded in 1951 and is one of the big banks in the People’s Republic of China. While it has its headquarters in Beijing, it does have branches throughout mainland China, Tokyo, Sydney, London, New York, and other places. In July 2010, the bank raised $22.1 billion from its IPO.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is a large multinational Chinese banking company that was founded in 1984. This state-owned commercial bank is headquartered in Beijing and raised $21.9 billion during its IPO in October 2006.
AIA Group, whose motto is “Healthier, Longer, Better Lives”, is a Hong Kong multinational insurance and finance company, and is the largest publicly-listed life insurance and securities group in the Asia-Pacific region. When it had its IPO on October 29, 2010, it raised $20.5 billion.
[Note: This article is not financial advice.]
