What is a placing?
A means of raising capital for a company, either pre or post flotation. For example, when a company initially comes to the market, it can raise capital in two main ways – , either as an ‘offer for sale’ to the general investing public or as a placing of shares with institutions. Post flotation, if it needs to raise further capital, it may elect to go for a rights issue (see previous definition below) or, again, place the shares with certain larger shareholders. The privatisation and demutualization boom of the 1980s and 1990s, where offers for sale were widespread have, in recent years, been largely replaced by placings. The accepted wisdom of this is that the cost of placings is generally lower for companies than public offerings and the speed to market is quicker. In recent times, however, some companies have realised the importance of smaller shareholders, especially if their customers are also likely to be their shareholders, and there are tentative signs that there may be some ret
