Perspectives · New issues · 2026

Owning a company before it lists

A company that has not yet listed has no daily market price. Its value is set by occasional funding rounds, secondary sales between investors and the company's own estimates. These can be far apart, and they can change when the company lists.

Holders of private shares usually cannot sell until a listing or another liquidity event, and the timing of that is not in their hands. After a listing, a lock-up commonly keeps early holders from selling for a period, and the market price may settle well away from the last private valuation, as the archive's pieces on recent IPOs show.

Information is also thinner than for a listed company. The questions to ask are how the price was set, what rights the shares carry, what happens if no listing occurs, and what the costs and fees are.

General information only; not investment advice. Read the risk warning.