IPO Professionals

IPO Vital Signs is the unique web-based system for helping IPO professionals excel in four key aspects of the IPO process:

Market Your IPO Services

  • Review your firm’s standings in the IPO Leadership Rankings.
  • Evaluate your firm’s industry sector experience.
  • Analyze law and accounting firms by office locations.
  • Compare your firm’s IPO fee estimates with fees with other IPO firms.
  • Evaluate experience of individual IPO lawyers.
  • Conduct IPO Market Intelligence – Where should your firm increase its market share?
  • Establish your objectives for IPO market share and IPO fee revenues
  • Prepare your firm’s IPO fact book
  • Draft press releases for international, national, regional and local distribution
  • Select referral sources

Advise IPO Clients

Sample questions the IPO Vital Signs system can answer:

  1. Have there been any recent IPOs or initial filings in your client's industry sector?
  2. What is the financial profile of companies similar to your client that have gone public in any recent period?
  3. Your client has just been sued. Can your client still go public?
  4. Should your client reincorporate in Delaware?
  5. What security should your client’s company offer in its IPO?
  6. How many common and preferred shares should your client authorize?
  7. What size Board of Directors should a company like your client’s have when it goes public?
  8. Should your client’s independent directors be paid in cash, equity, or both when they go public?
  9. Will your client need to pay dividends after it goes public?

Negotiate the IPO Deal

Sample questions the IPO Vital Signs system can answer:

  1. What should the IPO offering amount be?
  2. What is the final pricing versus the initial filing pricing record of your client’s proposed lead manager?
  3. What are the recent price-to-revenue multiples granted by IPO underwriters your client is considering?
  4. How much will your client’s insiders have to give up when their company goes public?
  5. What dilution will public shareholders put up with?
  6. Can our team negotiate for an underwriting discount of less than 7%?
  7. The over-allotment option takes the risk out of the underwriting for the investment banks. Do all companies grant an overallotment option to their syndicate?
  8. Can insiders sell in the IPO offering?
  9. Your client’s long term shareholders don’t want to agree to an IPO lock-up. Can we use a multiple lock-up agreement?
  10. Can you suggest your client’s insiders use the IPO Green Shoe instead of waiting for the end of the lock-up?
  11. What percent of shares should I recommend my client include in their IPO directed share program?

Draft the IPO Prospectus

Use the IPO Prospectus Writer – A Guide to Drafting the IPO Prospectus to…

  • Find Comparable IPO Companies. The short business descriptions used by other IPO data providers do not give enough information for me to determine if a company is truly a comparable. – How can I review their longer business descriptions to find comparability?
  • Outline Your IPO Prospectus. I know the standard sections used in an IPO prospectus. – How can I quickly find out if I need to include additional sections?
  • Draft the Risk Factors Section. We have prepared a first draft of the Risk Factors section. – How can I effectively and efficiently check risk factors used by comparable IPOs?
  • Disclosing Recent Litigation. My client is currently involved in an intellectual property law suit. – Have there been recent IPOs with similar suits and how did they disclose it in the prospectus?
  • Equity for Counsel. Aan investment partnership composed of certain current and former members of and persons associated with the issuer’s law firm beneficially own a portion of shares of the issuer’s common stock. – How have similar programs been disclosed in recent IPOs?
  • Going Concern. My client was issued a going concern statement from its auditor. – In what sections of the prospectus should we disclose the going concern issue?