The following may be a better solution to your company's finance and long term funding needs providing your company has the on hand liquid cash to pay for becoming publicly traded as a first step? From our affiliate California based company:
Frankfurt and Berlin and other World Wide Stock Exchanges are definitely a viable alternative and/or supplement to the S-1 IPO Registration or "reverse merger" method of "going public" in the US.
Companies from the US, Canada, Australia, Africa, China, India, Brazil, Chile, etc. have formed Canadian, UK, Swiss or other holding companies to use as a vehicle to list on the Frankfurt and other worldwide exchanges.
We have been taking companies public in the US for about 25 years now, but since 2008, when the US economy started having major problems, and when we first got connected to German investors who funded many US companies for us when others couldn’t, we have come to realize the power of being an “international” player. Given the state of the world, with communication to any part of the world being not only practical but “easy”, we have developed an international community for taking our clients public around the world, taping into sources of money around the world.
Right now we feel the best strategy for going public is not to abandon listing in the US altogether, as we see things improving in a year or two in the US, but to achieve multiple listings on several international exchanges.
We have proprietary “international” solutions which allow you to:
1) Go public in as little as 90 days on a foreign exchange and get funded in as little as another 60 days;
2) Be listed in several countries at once – including the US, without US and SEC rules having jurisdiction over your entire structure. This allows you to take advantage of rules on other exchanges like the German exchanges which allow for immediate free trading stock (no holding period) and no bar on affiliate sales (affiliates can sell immediately and as much as they want);
3) Prevent and eliminate the bad effects that “shorting” by market makers, as is usually the practiced on the US OTC, creates;
4) Hold an attractive price for your stock rather than the penny and sub-penny prices that US OTC stocks often fall to;
5) Keep control of your company. Get funded without dilution beyond a set acceptable amount no matter how much money you raise;
6) Do mergers and acquisitions of other companies without losing control of your company are going beyond a set dilution upon merger or acquisition;
7) Attract private “investors” by creating investment grade securities that are guaranteed to make a profit – yes that’s right – you can guarantee the investment will make a profit;
8) Solve problems you may be having with note holders, existing investors, factors and others;
9) And more.
Right now we can take companies public on any of the US Exchanges or OTC, as well as the Bermuda Stock Exchange, GXG Markets UK exchange in London, the London Stock Exchange and AIM, the Aktietorget Stock Exchange in Sweden, the Cypress Stock Exchange, the Vienna Stock Exchange, the German Stock Exchanges – Frankfurt, Berlin, and Stuttgart , – the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canada, the Dubai Stock Exchange, The Singapore Stock Exchange, and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
All of the above stock exchanges can provide liquidity to a public company listed there. Which exchanges you should list on first depends on the type of company you have and the particular strategy we would work out for you.
The main advantages of a multi-national listing approach are that you are no longer reliant on any one country or economy. By taping into multiple exchanges you are hedged against sudden negative events in the public sector such that have recently happened in both the US and Germany.
Once you get listed on one exchange, you raise money which then funds a listing on another higher and more prestigious exchange. Once you get listed on the first exchange, it then also becomes an easy matter to get a dual listing on multiple exchanges as another way to raise initial funds.
Going public in the US is still a good and relatively cheap alternative. However US listing take longer than most other countries. A listing on the OTC can take nine to twelve months to achieve.
Listings on many other international exchanges can be had in as little as one to four months. Dual listings on German exchanges, which have liquidity comparable to the US OTC, can be achieved in as little as three to four months.
What we usually recommend is getting listed on a fast exchange, such as GXG or Bermuda, which can then lead to a quick dual listing in Germany. After obtaining funding in Germany, one should expand into and raise money on other international exchanges so that your company is set up to always be in a liquid money raising market in the future.
Costs for going public in the US or on other exchanges can be as little as $25,000 to $75,000 out of pocket for legal, accounting and filing fees. It depends on your company, the country and exchange we are filing on and what you are doing. On average it costs about $75,000 - $90,000 out of pocket expenses plus stock in your company to go public. Sometimes we can provide investors to cover some of these costs. However, investors always want you to have something invested in the endeavor so even with an investor that we might provide you should plan on coming up with at least $25,000 minimum out of your pocket.
Shell companies, existing public companies with no business in them, can also be acquired in most countries for those who are in a hurry. Shell transactions can sometimes be closed in a matter of weeks as opposed to months. Shells range in cost from about $150,000 to $500,000 depending on the exchange you are interested in. If you have that kind of budget and are interested in a shell transaction let us know and we will get back to you with a list of companies that are available for purchase.
FUNDINGS
Initial fundings tend to be through draw down fundings and other market related fundings. We have several broker dealer – US and International – that do firm draw down funding commitments from $1 million on up. We have other firms that will buy blocks of stock and/or notes from shareholders of listed and trading companies.
We also have several banks that will do loans against stock shortly after you get listed and before you start trading for select companies. After an initial funding the same banks will arrange for fundings via stand by letters of credit or bonds for larger transactions ($ 20 to $100 million).
