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 potential of both companies. She explains how Solvay, a historic leader in commodity chemicals, and...

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 shareholder base post-IPO, offering her view of what it takes to successfully navigate the public markets....

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-called ‘M&A compounders’ listed there – but all in different industries. With Henrik, we...

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 opportunities of listing in a sector with few listed peers globally, and the positive impacts of raising...

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 in 2021. With Matts, we discuss his experience of listing an innovative company with few listed...

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 what being listed means for these companies, the technological evolutions in shipping, the...

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 has affected the strategy of the Tadawul group, the internationalization of the exchange, and the...

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 the critical moments, strategic decisions, and leadership challenges encountered when steering a...

In 2018, Spotify was the first company to do a direct listing instead of a regular hashtag#IPO process – foregoing the usual bookbuilding process in favor of opening the shares directly on the market in an auction. In 2021, Wise also chose to do a direct listing in London, and we recently hosted Matt Briers to recount their story. Dakin Campbell, CFA is the author of Going Public, where he recounts the history and the inside stories of some of the major IPOs in recent memory, starting with the...

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 and Exclusive Networks why they decided to list in Europe. Today, we look back at the 2013 US IPO...

Middle Eastern equity capital markets have captured investors' attention the last 2 years, as the only truly active IPO market in the world throughout 2022 and 2023 - with close to 50 IPOs listing each of those years. To learn more about GCC equity markets, we are joined by Wassim Al Khatib, the CEO of Lazard in MENA. Lazard is an independent financial adviser, advising companies and their owners on all aspects of corporate finance, including organizing the IPO process. Before Lazard, Wassim...

When a company becomes listed, index inclusion is a big deal. Beyond the stamp of approval, it brings in new passive investors, more liquidity, and ultimately more stability as a listed company. Yet, index inclusion rules are very technical, and not always easy to understand. To open up the topic of equity indices, we have invited Mark Makepeace, the CEO of Wilshire Indexes. Mark built up and managed FTSE Russell from a small group that produced the UK equity benchmark FTSE 100, to one of the...

Matt Briers has been the CFO of Wise since 2015. In 2021, he led the company to a direct listing on the London Stock Exchange, the first major direct listing in Europe. Wise, founded in the UK in 2011, has revolutionized cross-border payments for individuals and businesses by making them easier, faster and cheaper. After 10 years as a private company, Wise followed in the footsteps of Spotify and Slack by doing a direct listing instead of a regular IPO, at a valuation of $11 billion. Matt and...

Erik Salz has more than 15 years experience in equity research, most recently as an equity analyst at JP Morgan, where he particularly focused on IPO research and multi-industry coverage. During that time, he has been involved in more than 60 IPO projects.  With Erik, we wanted to get a better understanding of how sell-side analysts perform their work in relation to an IPO, how it relates to the coverage post-listing, and the lessons he has learned about how to engage with analysts and...

Julia Stoetzel is the founder of Junicorn, an Investor Relations consultancy based in Germany, and host of the podcast Street Tweets. We first met Julia when she was Investor Relations director at DeliveryHero, and then 3 years later when she headed Investor Relations at About You, a Germany ecommerce company, during its IPO in 2021. With Julia, we discuss her experience in Investor Relations, the importance of having an IR strategy during the IPO process, how to understand which investors you...

ERM is the largest pure-play sustainability consultancy globally, with 8,000 consultants assisting companies with defining and implementing their sustainability strategies. ERM works with both the largest listed companies, as well as private companies and investors. Giovanni Aquaro is a Partner at ERM, and works with private companies seeking to bridge the gap in ESG disclosure between private and public. With Giovanni, we discuss how companies should deal with the difference between ESG...

Stéphane Boujnah is the CEO of Euronext, the largest European stock exchange, managing the bourses of Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, Oslo, Paris and Milan.  Stephane has been the CEO for the last 8 years, leading an M&A drive that saw the company acquiring and integrating the Irish stock exchange in 2018, Oslo stock exchange in 2019 and Borsa Italiana in 2021. With Stéphane, we go back to the origins of stock markets to discuss why they are the natural home for ambitious growth...

Paolo Dellachà is the CEO of Industrie De Nora, an Italian industrial company with global presence. It is the world’s leading supplier of electrodes for all major electrochemical processes – and have recently seen tremendous growth in applications for green hydrogen production. 📜 After almost 100 years as a private family-owned company, De Nora listed on Euronext Milan in June 2022, in a €500mn transaction. Before that, the company had welcomed Blackstone and Snam S.p.A. as minority investors...

Miguel Stilwell d'Andrade is the CEO of EDP, a Portuguese utility with a global footprint. In 2008, EDP listed its subsidiary EDP Renewables, one of the world's leading renewable energy developers and operators. EDPR is the world's 4th largest wind energy producer, with 15 GW of installed renewable energy capacity, and a very ambitious growth plan to develop 4GW of capacity per year.EDPR listed in 2008, raising €1.6bn just before the global financial crisis, and recently came back to the...

Emmanuel Thomassin is the CFO of Delivey Hero, one of the world's leading online food delivery platforms. He has been the CFO since 2014 and led the company through its successful €1bn IPO on the Frankfurt stock exchange in 2017. Since then, Delivery Hero have continued leading the charge in food delivery globally, using the listing as a catalyst to fund important acquisitions and continue growing the organization. With Emmanuel, we discuss important elements surrounding the IPO process from...

Laurence Borde is the founder of Mediatree, an agency specializing in accompanying companies in the preparation and implementation of the IPO roadshow: coaching management ahead of the IPO, investor marketing, and accompanying them through the IPO roadshow. Behind the scenes, Mediatree has been involved in IPOs as diverse as Enel Group in Italy, Burberry in the UK, Telstra in Australia, Citic group in China, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. in Japan over the last 25 years. With Laurence, we...

EQT - started in Sweden in 1994, is one of the world's largest #privateequity fund managers. They are also a regular #IPO sponsor, particularly in #Europe but increasingly globally as well. Some of their recent #IPOs: Azelis in 🇧🇪 , Musti Group in Finland 🇫🇮 and AutoStore™ in Norway 🇳🇴 . And of course, the IPO of their own GP in 2019. Magnus Tornling joined EQT in 2016 and has managed all their IPO processes since then -...

Française des Jeux, coming out of state ownership, was one of the largest and most successful IPOs in Europe over the last 5 years, raising $2bn for the French state and helping revive retail interest in IPOs. With Claire Vernet-Garnier, who was Head of the Finance Division at the French Government Shareholding Agency (APE) at the time, we go through the important choices around this successful IPO, and the characteristics of the government as a long-term shareholder in public markets. 🎧Listen...

Why is there so little innovation in the IPO process? How has the investor landscape changed over the last decades, and how can companies get institutional investors engaged in their IPOs? Craig Coben was until recently Bank of America's Global Head of Equity Capital Markets, and for many years the bank's Head of EMEA Equity Capital Markets. We draw on his 30 years' experience advising companies on their IPOs, follow-on offerings and rights issues, to try to find some avenues to reform the IPO...

ESG investing is becoming increasingly important, both in terms of fund flows and integration in investment decisions. The disclosure requirements for private and public companies are not the same, making the IPO a crucial milestone regarding ESG, in addition to the traditional financial aspects. Marie Freier is Global Co-Head of Sustainable Investment Banking at Barclays, where she provides advisory services for companies on their sustainability journey. She shares with us her views on the...

KKR is one of the world’s largest private equity firms, and also one of the most active private equity sponsors of IPOs, with 3-4 IPOs per year globally. In Europe, they have listed 6 companies over the last 5 years: Trainline, Calisen, Hensoldt, SoftwareOne, Darktrace, and OVHCloud. Eric Han is a Principal within KKR’s Capital Markets team in New York, and has managed all these IPOs from KKR’s side. He shares with us how KKR approaches their IPOs globally, including IPO readiness, listing...

Annika Sigfrid has been at the center of more IPOs than most of us will ever be. She has 25 years' experience in Equity Capital Markets transactions. In her last role she was Global Head of ECM at Nordea, a leading Nordic investment bank. She is now an independent adviser and board member, working with companies on their governance and preparation of their IPOs. With Annika we go deeper into the topic of IPOs of family-owned companies, which take a significant step as they decide to become...

Yann Leca was the CFO of OVHCloud, a cloud computing company, from 2019 to 2022 and led the company to its IPO in October 2021 - one of the largest and most succesful tech IPOs in Europe in 2021. OVHCloud, founded by Octava Klaba more than 20 years ago, is both founder-led and with two strong private equity backers, KKR and Towerbrook. Yann shares his experience defining the strategy of the company and preparing the company for a successful listing - as well as the early life of a newly listed...

In this episode, we discuss the IPO of Exclusive Networks, a global distributor of cybersecurity solutions, with Jesper Trolle, its CEO since September 2020. Jesper was hired to join Exclusive in the middle of covid-19, and led the company to its successful IPO on Euronext Paris a year after joining.Exclusive Networks was owned by Permira’s private equity fund before the IPO, and we discuss the process of listing a tech company backed by a PE sponsor, the choice of listing location, the impact...