Initial Public Offering (IPO)

Formal

‘Initial Public Offering’ - the process of taking an entity to the market in order to raise funding - usually for expansion. A Prospectus is issued detailing the purpose of this fund raising exercise and this contains the business forecasts and projections likely as a result of the IPO.

Real-world Example

A private tech company lists on the stock exchange for the first time, selling shares to public investors to raise $200M - its IPO, marking the shift from private to publicly traded ownership.