Day 27 December 2022

A proprietary company cannot issue or offer to sell shares to the public or retail shareholders. In this respect, it will be necessary for a proprietary company to convert to a public company before an IPO.  Alternatively, a new public company could be established to be the IPO vehicle and to own the shares in the proprietary company.
It will be important to determine early in the process which entity will be listed. This will depend on a number of factors

To meet the assets test, the company must satisfy certain criteria.

To meet the profit test, the company must satisfy certain criteria.

A company seeking general admission must satisfy certain criteria before it can be granted official listing on ASX

In order to raise capital, companies issue securities which may includes shares, debentures, and options to acquire shares and debentures. The Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) requires that disclosure to be made, subject to the certain exemptions, where an offer is made. If there is a failure to disclose in accordance with the provisions or where material misstatements or omissions have been made, issues surrounding civil and criminal liability may arise.