An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment banks, who also arrange for the shares to be listed on one or more stock exchanges. Through this process, colloquially known as floating, or going public, a privately held company is transformed into a public company. Initial public offerings can be used to raise new equity capital for companies, to monetize the investments of private shareholders such as company founders or private equity investors, and to enable easy trading of existing holdings or future capital raising by becoming publicly traded.
Investment banking pertains to certain activities of a financial services company or a corporate division that consist in advisory-based financial transactions on behalf of individuals, corporations, and governments. Traditionally associated with corporate finance, such a bank might assist in raising financial capital by underwriting or acting as the client's agent in the issuance of debt or equity securities. An investment bank may also assist companies involved in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and provide ancillary services such as market making, trading of derivatives and equity securities, FICC services or research. Most investment banks maintain prime brokerage and asset management departments in conjunction with their investment research businesses. As an industry, it is broken up into the Bulge Bracket, Middle Market, and boutique market.
The ING Group is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Amsterdam. Its primary businesses are retail banking, direct banking, commercial banking, investment banking, wholesale banking, private banking, asset management, and insurance services. With total assets of US$967.8 billion, it is one of the biggest banks in the world, and consistently ranks among the top 30 largest banks globally.
Linklaters LLP is a British multinational law firm, headquartered in London, England. Founded in 1838, it is a member of the "Magic Circle" of elite London-headquartered law firms. It currently employs over 3100 lawyers across 31 offices in 21 countries.
Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate business has actively acquired commercial real estate. Blackstone is also active in credit, infrastructure, hedge funds, insurance, secondaries, and growth equity. As of June 2023, the company's total assets under management were approximately US$1 trillion, making it the largest alternative investment firm globally.
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is a white-shoe law firm headquartered in New York City. The firm specializes in litigation and corporate practices, particularly mergers and acquisitions and private equity, with over 1,000 attorneys in 11 offices worldwide.
Slaughter and May is a British multinational law firm headquartered in London, England. Founded in 1889, Slaughter and May is considered to be one of the most prestigious law firms in the world and is a member of the "Magic Circle" of elite London-headquartered law firms. In addition to London, it has offices in Beijing, Brussels and Hong Kong.
Private equity in the 2000s represents one of the major growth periods in the history of private equity and venture capital. Within the broader private equity industry, two distinct sub-industries, leveraged buyouts and venture capital expanded along parallel and interrelated tracks.
A club deal, in finance, refers to a leveraged buyout or other private equity investment that involves two or more private equity firms. It can also be referred as consortium or syndicated investment.
The Duisenberg School of Finance (DSF) was an educational organization in the Netherlands which offered Master's level education in finance between 2008 and 2015. The school was initiated as a collaborative initiative of the Dutch financial sector with local and international academic institutions. Amongst others, the founders of the initiative were Nout Wellink and Minister of the Economic Affairs, Maria van der Hoeven. The name was chosen by the founders to honor Wim Duisenberg, the first President of the European Central Bank.
Virtu Financial is an American company that provides financial services, trading products and market making services. Virtu provides product suite including offerings in execution, liquidity sourcing, analytics and broker-neutral, multi-dealer platforms in workflow technology and two-sided quotations and trades in equities, commodities, currencies, options, fixed income, and other securities on over 230 exchanges, markets, and dark pools. Virtu uses proprietary technology to trade large volumes of securities. The company went public on the Nasdaq in 2015.
Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) is a proxy advisory firm. Hedge funds, mutual funds and similar organizations that own shares of multiple companies pay ISS to advise regarding share holder votes. It is the largest such firm, with over 61 percent of the business.
Bredin Prat is a French law firm of about 180 lawyers, 45 of whom are partners and 14 are counsels. Founded in 1966, it is one of the largest law firms in Europe. It has offices in Paris and Brussels. Bredin Prat maintains partnerships with BonelliErede (Italy), Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Hengeler Mueller (Germany), Slaughter and May, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, and Uría Menéndez (Spain).
Katende Ssempebwa & Co. Advocates commonly known as KATS is a Ugandan law firm whose headquarters are in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. It is the country's longest-standing premier league corporate commercial firm founded in 1969. It is the biggest full-service Ugandan firm in terms of numbers and a member of the LEXAfrica network.
S&L Advocates is a Ugandan law firm headquartered in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. It is a leading business law firm that was founded in 1980 by Paulo Sebalu and Godfrey Serunkuma Lule. The firm is a member of DLA Piper and the DLA Piper Africa Group. The firm's advocates are members of various professional bodies, including the International Bar Association, the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, the East African Law Society and the Uganda Law Society.
Westbroek is a village in the Dutch province of Utrecht.
HBN Law & Tax is the largest law and tax firm in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and is through continuation also one of its oldest law firms, having been founded in 1938.
In 2019, the top 50 Dutch law firms had around 4,476 attorneys and the top 30 law firms had around 183 notaries and 527 candidate notaries. According to the Chambers and Partners legal directory, the top five law firms in the Netherlands are Allen & Overy Netherlands, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, Houthoff, Loyens & Loeff and Stibbe. Every year advocatie.nl publishes a list of the 50 biggest law firms in headcount.
Sanjai Bhagat is the Professor of Finance at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder. He serves as an independent director on corporate boards, and advises various government agencies on corporate finance and corporate governance.
Jonathan Emanuël Soeharno is a Dutch lawyer, professor, and politician. He has been working for law firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek since 2008 and as a professor at the University of Amsterdam since 2012. He served as a member of the Senate on behalf of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) for four months between 2021 and 2022 as the replacement of Ben Knapen.
EUR 200.6 million