Raising New Equity

A public offering is the offer of new stocks for sale to the general investing public. This is a common method of stock issue. An offer for sale can involve both the sale of existing stocks, so that existing holders are simply selling their stocks on the market. This is a common method of achieving an exit for venture capital investors, where the rationale for the IPO is achieving a market for the investors’ stocks rather than raising new capital, and the offer of new stocks to the market, so that the company is raising new equity finance.