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Seek to go public based upon flat fees, not hourly rates. This limits your risk to
agreed upon fees. Find someone who can package entire registration and listing service for you. It’s always cheaper to buy complete service rather than individual parts. The supplier is taking several companies public and gets better prices from professionals for their services.
It’s less costly for a non-American company to go public in States than for any U. S. Domestic Company to become a U.S. public company in America. The money savings relate to lower levels of legal responsibility for filing attorney doing a 20F filing rather than an SB2 filing. The non-American company can use an auditor and an audit method that is accepted in their local country. This saves money over paying an American Accounting Firm to do a GAAP audit.
There are other savings for non-American companies trading in United States. They include fact that SEC does not require quarterly filings (called 10Qs), nor is an annual shareholders report or meeting. I believe that clear, concise communications with shareholders is vital. I believe that both positive and negative information needs to be shared in a timely manner. I doubt SEC requirements for 10Qs and shareholder reports is most cost effective way to achieve these goals.
Historically, Over-the-Counter and Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board (OTCBB) are easiest and cheapest places to list your shares. This market has a bad reputation. My advice is seek to list your shares on a Regional Stock Exchange as soon as your company meets regional stock exchange’s listing requirements.
Epilog: Since March 2000, Enron, Tyco International and WorldCom stock scandals have driven cost of doing a GAAP audit upward. Inflation continues and cost of doing an IPO has risen substantially in past four years. (5/04) You can contact William Cate at Beowulf Investments website: [http://home.earthlink.net/~beowulfinvestments/]
He has been the Managing Director of Beowulf Investments [http://home.earthlink.net/~beowulfinvestments/] since 1981 and is the Executive Director of the Global Village Investment Club [http://home.earthlink.net/~beowulfinvestments/globalvillageinvestmentclubwelcome/]
