Maybe your company belongs on the U.S. Public Markets, especially if you are a European industrial, medical, or technology company.
European businesses do not command American multiples simply by virtue of cross-listing.
So listing in the U.S. and access —through Nasdaq, the NYSE, or an OTC market—does not automatically inflate your valuation.
But the true rationale is access to capital.
When you are running a business with scale: EUR 200M in revenue, over EUR 20M in operating profit, audited accounts, and a defensible market position, the U.S. markets strategy functions at your exact current scale.
You may have considered and stalled when exploring an IPO in your European home, such as Euronext, the London Stock Exchange, Deutsche Börse, or Borsa Italiana… - the response from your local advisors may have been: the fees and transaction costs do not make sense at this size.
They may have told you to come back when you are twice as large.
This is not a growth plan.
You need growth capital to reach the scale local markets demand, but your local market withholds that capital until you reach it.
For most boards, that leaves two default outcomes:
- Maxed-Out Bank Leverage: Existing bank credit facilities are already pushed to their limits, leaving you staring at restrictive covenants or prohibitive terms and thinking, what else can we do? So let’s just do it!
- Considering a Sale: This is a grueling reality as most M&A processes fail after months of wasted time, legal fees, and operational distraction. You spent a year opening your books to a potential buyer or a PE fund, gave away proprietary data, exhausted your team, and ended up with nothing.
Neither option reflects years of hard operational execution.
And this is why I am bringing up:
The U.S. Mid-Market Alternative
In U.S. public markets, businesses at your scale are not dismissed as too small.
Specialist and institutional investors focus heavily on established mid-market companies.
If your company has transparent cash flows, audited financial statements, disciplined governance, and a clear, understandable use of proceeds, you create a credible U.S. strategy.
Here are non-negotiable conditions:
- Current Earnings: Real operating profit today—not distant future projections.
- Defensibility: Something structurally difficult to replicate, such as patents, regulatory approvals, long-dated contracts, or entrenched market position.
- Institutional Readiness: Governance, reporting rhythms, and audited accounts that meet institutional expectations from day one.
A clean cap table cannot be overstated.
Why Now?
If you evaluated this route several years ago and dismissed it, the calculus has changed.
If you approach U.S. markets for an arbitrary valuation bump you may be disappointed. However address your strategy as a pragmatic mechanism to secure institutional capital at your current scale.
This alone will change the outcome entirely.
And if your local markets have told you to return at twice the size, let’s discuss your numbers, the structure, and the proposed use of proceeds.
Where you are now, is a catch-22 that leaves your business frozen in place locally, forcing you to either max out bank debt or settle for a forced exit.
So maybe your company belongs on the U.S. Public Markets.
Don’t be afraid.