An Initial Public Offering (IPO) is the first sale of securities by a company to the general public and is usually followed by the shares being listed for trading on a stock exchange. An IPO allows a company to tap into a wide pool of potential investors to provide itself with capital for future growth and expansion, working capital or the repayment of debt. A company can raise capital by issuing either equity (such as shares) or debt (such as corporate bonds). Through the IPO, a private company transforms itself into a public company whose securities are listed for trading on a stock exchange. This book attempts to answer the following questions: Why companies should go public? and Why investors should invest in IPOs? This first part of the book will give you an overview of what an IPO at a stock exchange means, what the decision triggers are, and what issues should be considered when planning a stock exchange listing of a company to raise capital. It will also describe issues around being a listed company and ongoing compliance with the listing requirements. The second part of the book will give you an overview of what the decision triggers are for investors, and what issues should be considered when deciding whether or not to invest in an IPO. It starts with background and context in terms of an economist's overview of investing.