First International Forum: IPO Prospects for Ukrainian Companies organized by the IFC Ukraine Corporate Development Project team last year in October allows to draw two key conclusions:
• The conditions for entering external debt markets by many companies in Ukraine have virtually formed.
• IPO is probably the best alternative for securing substantial and cheap funds for dynamically developing Ukrainian companies. 

Here are some thoughts that experts and practitioners who participated in the first IPO-Forum shared with us:

“A sustainable and very substantial growth in many sectors of Ukrainian economy in the recent years, as well as resulting consumer demand, have created for the enterprises operating in these sectors almost ideal conditions for using such a powerful tool for securing investments as IPO.”
Dmytro Tomashevsky
Managing Director, Investment and Financial Group ‘Sokrat’, Kyiv

“Before IPO, we had credit lines open for approximately 2.6 million pounds. Plus capital stock of 4.5 million pounds. As a result of IPO conducted on London Stock Exchange we immediately attracted almost just as much. No other means of financing would allow attaining such a result.”
Dmytro Dragun
Partner, Trust Capital Group, Ukrproduct Group LTD, Kyiv

 “A very important signal is that the IPO-Forum has gathered primarily company representatives, in other words, those who can issue shares for their subsequent public placement on stock exchange. Actually, that confirms the fact that Ukrainian business elite understands the need in going beyond those extremely limited opportunities for development that own funds, bank loans and, in some cases, bonds, provide to companies today. Unlike them, a successful IPO allows a company to access substantial financing and to develop its business quickly.”
Stefal Jekel
Director Europe, Middle East, Africa, New York Stock Exchange, Inc., New York 

However, the complex process of preparing and conducting an IPO is yet to be fully clear to company owners and top-managers. And, accordingly, they are not sure that success will be achieved. This is, maybe, the most serious currently existing obstacle preventing many Ukrainian companies’ attempts to go to the international financial markets.

Second International Forum ІРО +: Increasing Company Value should help to overcome it by focusing particularly on adding value to a company. Just as the previous year Forum, this one will be very practical – recognized and most authoritative international and Ukrainian experts will speak thereat. Their presentations will be based on real practice cases.