South Asian Federation of Exchanges (SAFE) has announced the holding of first-ever “Pakistan IPO Summit” being organized by Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) in collaboration with Stock Exchanges of Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, CDC and NCCPL here Today (Monday).

The aim of this summit is to serve as a unique platform to build cooperation between the representatives of the companies that are considering public offering and the investment and financial services industry, by highlighting the benefits and the pathway to manage a successful initial public offering, thus sharing the benefits with the economy and society at large by gaining access to hitherto untapped sources of financing.

The LSE spokesman said here Sunday that major purpose of the summit is to highlight how our markets can assist the potential IPO companies to meet their objective of raising funds from the general public for their future growth strategy.

Another purpose is to underscore the point that besides collecting funds from the market, there can be many other reasons for becoming a public listed company such as; raising the corporate profile/creating further brand recognition, unlocking the wealth of the owners, creating loyal investor/consumer base, getting market valuation for the companies, fulfilling the corporate social responsibility of sharing/distributing wealth in the society through giving out of corporate profits and above all, to finance the companies through an Islamic mode etc, said the LSE spokesman here Tuesday.

There is still a further need to sensitize the owners of many family owned companies about their perceived fear that they might lose autonomy if their companies get listed on the stock exchanges.

Accordingly, the summit shall also highlight that by becoming a listed company and by adopting good corporate governance practices, such closely held corporations may actually benefit from a broader participation of the general investors and good corporate oversight frameworks.
Together with the above, the Summit shall also enable the participants to learn about the pathways of managing a successful initial public offering and shall aim to provide a complete understanding of all fundamental IPO issues & challenges besides highlighting the role that our capital market institutions can play in support of a successful initial public offering.

The especially planned Post Event Workshop for Potential IPO companies shall feature success stories of IPO from leading blue chip corporate as well as direct interactions with government representatives, advice from regulators, financial advisors & underwriters and strategic counsel from stock exchanges and other capital market institutions.

During the Summit, some of the potential IPO enterprises would be given the opportunity to make a presentation to the audience so as to highlight their individual businesses, financial performance as well as their future growth strategy.

In addition, potential IPO companies would also be provided with some space at the event place to set up their Exhibition Stall for marketing/branding purposes.