What Is a Back-Door Listing?

定义

In finance, the term “back-door listing” refers to an alternative strategy used by private companies that wish to become publicly traded. One such strategy consists of acquiring an existing publicly-traded company, and then continuing to operate under the acquired company’s ticker symbol.

在金融领域，“借壳上市”一词是指希望上市的非上市公司采用的一种策略。其中一种策略是收购现有的上市公司，然后继续在被收购公司的股票代码下运营。

 

Although back-door listings can be more economical than a formal initial public offering (IPO), they may nonetheless prove prohibitively expensive for the private company involved. Oftentimes, companies pursuing a back-door listing must rely on substantial amounts of debt in order to finance the acquisition of the publicly traded vehicle.

尽管借壳上市可能比正式的首次公开募股 (IPO) 更经济，但对于所涉及的非上市公司而言，它们的成本可能还是太高了。 通常，寻求借壳上市的公司必须依靠大量债务来为收购公开交易工具提供资金。

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

要点

·A back-door listing is a method for converting a private company into a publicly traded company which bypasses the normal listing requirements of the stock exchange chosen.

借壳上市是一种绕过所选证券交易所的正常上市要求，将私人公司转变为上市公司的方法。

 

·A common example of this strategy consists of acquiring a company that is already publicly traded on the exchange.

该策略的一个常见例子是收购一家已经在交易所公开交易的公司。

 

·Companies which opt for a back-door listing are generally unable to meet key listing requirements. These requirements can include minimum levels of pre-tax earnings, shareholder equity, and other such criteria.

选择借壳上市的公司通常无法满足关键的上市要求，包括税前收入的最低水平、股东权益和其他此类标准。

 

How Back-Door Listings Work

借壳上市的运作

There are several key factors influencing the phenomenon of back-door listings. To begin with, companies may be attracted to the increased liquidity that can be available to public companies, allowing the private company’s founders to more easily cash out on their holdings. Moreover, public companies can sometimes benefit from more favorable fundraising terms, as many investors take confidence in the increased oversight and reporting requirements demanded of public firms.

影响借壳上市有几个关键因素：首先，上市公司可用的流动性增加可能会吸引公司，从而使非上市公司的创始人能够更轻松地将其持有的资产套现。此外，上市公司有时可以从更有利的筹资条件中获益，因为许多投资者对上市公司所要求的更高的监督和报告要求充满信心。

 

For these reasons, many owners of private companies may feel that their business would benefit from being publicly traded. However, the actual cost of going public—in terms of both time and money—can be prohibitively expensive for most private firms. After all, the upfront cost of an IPO is typically around 5% of its total proceeds, with additional fees often amounting to several millions of dollars. Recurring costs, such as annual auditing fees and internal compliance costs, can also add hundreds of thousands of dollars to a company’s administrative expenditures.

由于上述原因，许多非上市公司的所有者可能认为他们的业务会从公开交易中获益。然而，上市的实际成本——在时间和金钱方面——对于大多数非上市公司来说可能太高。毕竟，首次公开募股的前期成本通常约占其总收益的 5%，额外费用通常达数百万美元。经常性成本，例如年度审计费和内部合规成本，也会使公司的管理支出增加数十万美元。

 

In cases where a private company is able to shoulder these added costs, they nonetheless must contend with the formal listing requirements imposed by the various stock exchanges. For example, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) requires newly listed companies to have combined annual pre-tax earnings of at least $10 million over the past 3 years, among several other factors. The Nasdaq Stock Market also has its own requirements.

如果非上市公司能够承担此类额外的成本，他们仍然必须应对各种证券交易所施加的正式上市要求。 例如，纽约证券交易所 (NYSE) 要求新上市公司在过去 3 年中的税前年收入总和至少达到 1000 万美元，以及其他一些因素。 纳斯达克股票市场也有自己的要求。

 

Real World Example of a Back-Door Listing

借壳上市实例

XYZ Corporation is a mid-size manufacturing company that has grown substantially under its current management team. The company’s management are feeling very optimistic, as they have generated record profits in each of the last three years, culminating with a recent annual profit of $3 million.

XYZ Corporation 是一家中型制造公司，在其现有管理团队的带领下取得了长足的发展。该公司的管理层感到非常乐观，因为他们在过去三年中每年都创造了创纪录的利润，最近的年利润达到了 300 万美元。

 

Encouraged by their recent success, XYZ’s managers believe that they are ready to make the transition to becoming a public company. After all, they reason that this will benefit their shareholders by providing increased liquidity, legitimacy, and access to economical fundraising. To that end, they set about arranging for an IPO on the NYSE.

XYZ 的管理层受到最近成功的鼓舞，相信他们已准备好过渡到成为一家上市公司。毕竟，他们认为这将通过提供更高的流动性、合法性和经济筹款渠道而使股东受益。为此，他们着手安排在纽约证券交易所进行首次公开募股。

 

Yet despite their recent performance, XYZ soon finds that they are still not eligible for acceptance by the NYSE. One reason for this is their current earnings: although their growth has been strong, they have still not generated a cumulative $10 million in pre-tax earnings in the last 3 years.

然而，尽管他们最近表现出色，XYZ 很快发现他们仍然没有资格在纽约证券交易所上市。造成这种情况的一个原因是他们目前的收入：尽管他们的增长强劲，但在过去 3 年里，他们仍然没有累计产生 1000 万美元的税前收入。

 

Faced with this situation, XYZ’s managers adopt an alternative strategy. Rather than simply waiting until they meet the listing requirements, they choose to engineer a back-door listing by seeking out a relatively inexpensive publicly listed company and acquiring it outright. To finance this, XYZ is forced to rely on substantial amounts of debt, making the acquisition a type of leveraged buyout (LBO) transaction. Once acquired, the newly-purchased company can serve as the public “vehicle” of XYZ, thereby allowing XYZ to obtain the benefits of public ownership without formally meeting the new listing requirements.

面对该情况，XYZ 的管理层采取了另一种策略。他们不是简单地等待满足上市要求，而是选择通过寻找一家相对便宜的上市公司并直接收购来计划借壳上市。为了为此融资，XYZ 被迫依赖大量债务，使此次收购成为一种杠杆收购 (LBO) 交易。一旦被收购，新收购的公司可以作为XYZ的公共“载体”，从而让XYZ在不正式满足新上市要求的情况下获得公有制的收益。

 

（英文来源：https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/backdoorlisting.asp）