While many privately-owned companies are eager to become publicly traded, not everyone is in a rush to get listed. According to a new data analysis published by the U.K.-based financial technology company Tide, some of the most prominent companies were among the slowest to achieve their initial public offering.
The Century-Plus Club: The luxury goods brand Hermès International S.A (OTC:HESAY) took the longest to travel from founding to IPO – 162 years between its creation in 1837 and its 1999 IPO. Philip Morris International (NYSE:PM) was a tad slower, taking 161 years from its 1847 debut to its 2008 listing.
Other companies that required more than a century to go from private to public were Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS), with 130 years from its 1869 debut to its 1999 IPO; Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A), with 126 years from its 1839 creation to the Warren Buffett-coordinated 1965 IPO; and Linde plc (NYSE:NYSE), which traces its roots to 1879 and held its IPO 123 years later in 2002.
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The Need For Speed: But, of course, not every company requires more than a century to go public.
India's HDFC Bank Limited (NYSE:HDFC) was founded in 1994 and went public in 1995, making it the fastest company to transition from privately-owned to publicly-traded. China's Kweichow Moutai Co., Ltd. ( SSE: 600519) and Texas Instruments (NASDAQ:TXN) are tied for the second-fastest on the private-to-public route, with each getting on a stock exchanges two years after their respective founding.
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