On February 9th , a Forum was held on the Advantages of Going Public, organized by BME and the CNMV. In addition to the First Vice President of the Spanish Government, Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, Javier Hernani, CEO of BME, and Rodrigo Buenaventura, Chairman of the CNMV, the Spanish securities market supervisor, also took part. The common goal of all of the speakers was to encourage companies to go public in Spain, breaking away from the widely held beliefs that listing is only for large companies, that it is expensive and complicated.
At the well-attended event, the most powerful messages came from listed companies which have already been through the experience of going public and their partners in the process, such as investment banks and advisors. Elías Rodríguez Viñas, CEO of Renta 4 Corporate, a registered advisor to many of the latest new companies in BME Growth, said that listing is a qualitative leap forward for companies that makes them stronger.
Verónica Guerrikabeitia, Executive Director Equity Capital Markets, Banco Santander stressed the need, given the volatile market environment, for the IPO process to be agile in order to minimize listing costs.
Financing, visibility and brand recognition, and succession planning were the most repeated concepts, but other interesting aspects also came up, such as the objective assessment of corporate transactions or allowing employees to own a stake in the companyies’ share capital, as in the case of Axon Partners.
Axon Partners is a company listed on BME Growth that also acts as a venture capital manager to help other companies go public. According to Alfonso de León, CEO of Axon, the path is easier when you have a partner who accompanies throughout the process.
Cristina Aldámiz-Echevarría, Head of Corporate Development at ACS, explained that closing a large transaction under very complicated market conditions, such as was the case with the spin-off of ACS renewables through Saeta Yield in 2015, would have been impossible without being listed on the stock exchange. As ACS is a listed company, it had already come a long way in terms of corporate governance, and the transparency brought about by the listing resulted in greater market value.
Diego Cabezudo, CEO of Gigas, a company listed on BME Growth for the past 7 years, highlighted that in their case being listed has served them as exchange currency for the corporate transactions they have carried out during their international expansion. In their case, being listed helped the company to grow through acquisitions. As a result, since 2018, they have bought or taken over 5 separate companies. According to Cabezudo, the market has provided them with the necessary tools to make this possible.
According to David Ruiz de Andrés’, CEO of Grenergy, commenting on his company’s reaching the 1billion Euro market cap milestone, going public is something worth aspiring to as an entrepreneur. Connecting with the capital markets accelerates the attraction of talent and consolidates business plans.
Beatriz Alonso-Majagranzas, Head BME Exchange, stressed the importance and value of the transparency that listing in a premier league market brings.
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