IPO Stories

In this episode, we sit down with Yoni Assia, the co-founder and CEO of eToro, one of the world's best-known retail trading and investing platforms. Founded in 2007 with his brother Ronen, eToro was built around the idea of social trading — letting everyday investors follow and copy the trades of people they trust — and has since grown into a network of around 40 million registered users trading s...

In this episode, we sit down with Mathieu Lefebvre, the co-founder and CEO of Waga Energy, a French clean energy company that listed on Euronext Paris in October 2021 in a €126 million IPO. Only six years after founding the company, Mathieu and his co-founders chose the public markets to fund Waga's international expansion.  Mathieu and his team led the company through volatile markets, higher inf...

In this episode of IPO Stories, we speak with Susanne Wiegand and Christian Schulz, former CEO and CFO of RENK, one of Europe’s most important defense suppliers. RENK, a 150-year-old German industrial company specializing in high-performance transmissions for tanks and naval vessels, listed in Germany in February 2024 and is now valued at over €6 billion, with shares up more than 300% since the IP...

NBIM manages the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, the world's largest SWF - $2 trillion, of which $1.4 trillion is invested in public equities, across more than 8000 companies globally. NBIM is also one of the world's most active investors in IPOs, with more than 100 IPO investments in 2024. Emil Framnes, the fund's Global Head of Equity Trading and Transition, has been with NBIM for almost 20 yea...

Sweden has been one of the world's most active IPO markets over the last 10 years, despite a population of only 10 million. The Swedish markets has seen very solid support for IPOs, in large parts thanks to a very successful equity investment ecosystem, with both strong pension funds and retail participation.  With Adam Kostyal, Nasdaq's head of listings for Europe and President of Nasdaq Stockhol...

ADNOC, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, has been one of the most active IPO sponsors globally, with 6 IPOs of its subsidiaries and JVs, starting with ADNOC Distribution in 2017, followed by ADNOC Drilling and Fertiglobe in 2021, Borouge in 2022, and ADNOC Gas and Logistics in 2023. In today’s episode we are joined by Klaus Froehlich, the Chief Investment Officer of ADNOC Group, whose team has o...

In this episode, we sit down with Quynh-Boi Demey, the CFO of Exosens, a French industrial tech company that listed on Euronext Paris in June 2024.  Exosens specializes in advanced imaging and sensing solutions for demanding environments such as aerospace, defense, and scientific research. It is best known as the leading non-US manufacturer of light-enhancing tubes for night vision, but also devel...

Michelle Lowry is a Professor of Finance at Drexel University, and has dedicated her research agenda to IPOs, corporate governance and retail investing. With Michelle, we discuss some of the factors behind the drop in the number of listings over the last 20 years, in particular the change in the type of companies that are going public, the optimal corporate governance structures for newly public c...

In this episode of IPO Stories, we are thrilled to welcome Caroline Escott, Head of Investment Stewardship and Co-Head of Sustainable Ownership at Railpen, one of the UK's largest pension schemes. With over £34 billion in assets under management, Railpen is a significant player in both public and private markets. Caroline leads Railpen's global investment stewardship efforts, engaging with portfol...

Jay Ritter is a Professor of Finance at the University of Florida's Warrington School of Business. He has become known as «Mr IPO» for his substantial work on IPOs through the years, starting with his PhD dissertation about IPOs at the University of Chicago in 1981. Through his work, Jay Ritter has attempted to provide data-driven insights into the dynamics of IPOs across the world. His work has f...

In this episode we sit down with Michael Shapiro, Apollo's co-head of Capital Markets and Syndicate, to unpack what it really takes to engineer a successful IPO in today’s market. Drawing on Apollo’s deep experience across public and private markets—including recent IPOs like Lottomatica in Italy, Sun Country in the US, and Ventia in Australia —Michael explains how the firm builds IPO readiness fr...

Marco Sammon is an assistant professor in the Finance Unit at Harvard Business School. He and his co-authors have researched on how indexing interacts with IPOs, particularly relating to fast-track additions to equity indices in the US, and the behaviour of firms in response to equity index rebalancing. With Marco, we try to draw some conclusions for investors and management teams about how to ada...

In this episode we sit down with Eben Upton, CEO and Founder of Raspberry Pi - a UK-based technology company known for its single-board computers, initially founded to promote programming education and growing into a global leader in embedded computing. We are joined by Aditi Venkatram, Managing Director at Jefferies, one of the bankers advising on the IPO of Raspberry Pi on the London Stock Excha...

  In this episode, we sit down with Marc Hammoud, VP of Investor Relations at ADPorts Group, to discuss the pivotal role investor relations plays in the success of publicly listed companies. With over 15 years in MENA capital markets, Marc shares his expertise on how IR functions as a bridge between a company and the financial community, ensuring transparency, effective communication, and optimal...

In this episode we tell the story of the IPO of Norconsult with CFO Dag Fladby. Norconsult is a Norwegian engineering architecture & urban planning consultancy company, owned exclusively by its employees before the IPO, and which to become the best performing European IPO of 2023 two years down the line (+140%). With Dag, we trace back the journey from the IPO decision, involving all the emplo...

Our guest in this episode is Dr. Ilham Kadri, the CEO of Syensqo, a global speciality chemicals company listed in Brussels. In 2023, Ilham led the spin-off of Syensqo from Solvay, the 160-year old Belgian chemicals conglomerate. In this interview, Ilham discusses the strategic rationale behind the decision to split Solvay into two separate entities, highlighting the aim to unlock the full potentia...

In this episode we welcome Anne Ross, EMEA Equity Syndicate Manager at Fidelity Management and Research, our first guest from the buy-side. With her background at JP Morgan and now on the buy-side, Anne provides invaluable insights into the IPO process, from the role of bookrunners and strategic selection of banks, to the importance of understanding investor types and maintaining a strong sharehol...

Norva24 is a leader in underground infrastructure maintenance services in Northern Europe – that is the maintenance of all the infrastructure related to sewage and waste water. It is a Norwegian company, that has grown through the acquisition of smaller players over the years. In 2021, Henrik Damgaard, the company's CEO at the time, led Norva24 to an IPO in Stockholm, joining a number of other so-...

In this episode, we explore the journey of Taaleem, a leading operator of international private schools in the UAE, and its path to becoming one of the few listed education providers globally. Alan Williamson, the CEO of Taaleem, shares his experience taking Taaleem public in Dubai in November 2022. With Alan, we delve into the role of private education in the UAE, the unique challenges and opport...

Matts Johansen is the CEO of Aker BioMarine, the global leader in krill fishing and production of krill-based products, such as omega 3 supplements and aquaculture feed. Aker BioMarine was founded as part of the Aker conglomerate, and Matts has been the CEO since 2015. In July 2020, they listed the company on Euronext Growth Oslo, in the middle of covid. They then up-listed it to the main exchange...

Øystein Kalleklev is the CEO of not one, but 2 listed companies: Flex LNG and Avance Gas, two leading shipping companies in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), both listed on Euronext Oslo.  Øystein shares his experience steering these companies through volatile market conditions and his rationale behind dual listing Flex LNG in the US in 2019. With Øystein, we discuss w...

Saudi Arabia has evolved from having 4 IPOs per year 10 years ago, to 40 IPOs per year over the last few years. Nayef Al Athel has been in the middle of this evolution, as he headed the listings activity at the Saudi Exchange between 2018 and 2023. With Nayef, we discuss the policy decisions and incentives that have made Saudi Arabia one of the most active IPO markets globally, how going public ha...

Not all IPO processes end up with an IPO. The path is filled with twists and turns, in some cases cancellations, postponements, or even a strategic sale before reaching the stock market. In this episode, we sit down with Maria Hedengren, who led the IPO processes of both iZettle (bought out by Paypal in the final stages) and Readly (listed in Stockholm in 2020).  Through Maria's lens, we explore t...

In 2018, Spotify was the first company to do a direct listing instead of a regular IPO process – foregoing the usual bookbuilding process in favor of opening the shares directly on the market in an auction. Dakin Campbell is the author of the book Going Public, where he recounts the history and the inside stories of some of the major IPOs in recent memory, starting with the 1956 IPO of Ford, and f...

Criteo, a French adtech company, listed on Nasdaq in 2013. Edouard Lassalle joined in 2012 to prepare the company for the IPO, and later served as head of Investor Relations for the company until 2022.  One of the topics that comes up at an early stage during IPO preparation is the choice of listing location. In earlier episodes, we have heard from tech executives at Wise, DeliveryHero, OVHCloud a...