What is Initial public offering?
{{redirect|IPO}} An '''initial public offering''' ('''IPO''') or '''stock market launch''' is a type of [[public offering]]. A public offering is any tradeable [[asset]] that is offered to the public. In an initial public offering, [[Share (finance)|shares]] of [[stock]] in a company are sold to the general public, on a [[securities exchange]], for the first time. Through this process, a [[private company]] transforms into a [[public company]]. Initial public offerings are used by companies to raise [[Capital (economics)|money]] for expansion and to become publicly traded enterprises. A company selling shares is never required to repay the money to the people who buy them. ==Largest IPOs== The IPO of [[Alibaba]], a Chinese technology company, was the largest IPO ever. Now, Saudi ARAMCO's 2019 IPO has become the largest one, by 25.6 billion dollars.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/011215/top-10-largest-global-ipos-all-time.asp | title=Top 10 Largest Global IPOs of All Time }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=RateGain IPO Details, GMP, Allotment Date, Share Price, Listing Date, Wiki - World News Expert|url=https://worldnewsexpert.com/ipo/rategain-ipo-details-gmp-allotment-date-share-price-listing-date-wiki/|access-date=2021-12-03|language=en-US|archive-date=2021-12-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211203193822/https://worldnewsexpert.com/ipo/rategain-ipo-details-gmp-allotment-date-share-price-listing-date-wiki/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Before 2009, the United States was the leading issuer of IPOs in terms of total value. Since that time, however, China ([[Shanghai Stock Exchange|Shanghai]], [[Shenzhen Stock Exchange|Shenzhen]] and [[Hong Kong Stock Exchange|Hong Kong]]) has been the leading issuer. It raised up to US$73 billion until the end of November 2011. This was almost double the amount of money raised on the [[New York Stock Exchange]] and [[NASDAQ]] combined.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d9733718-2c4a-11e1-b7df-00144feabdc0.html |title=China