On 13 February 2008 Deloitte CIS carried out the first in the series of forums “What does being a public company mean?”. The forums cover issues dealing with initial public offering (IPO). By deciding to list, each company has its own specific goals, however the road to the stock exchange requires compliance with high standards in financial reporting, taxation, human resources management, etc. Investors make certain demands on corporate governance, communication, information disclosure and availability.

The aim of morning forums is to provide participators with the knowledge and opportunities for improving management methods of a listed company. The events will be two to three hours long morning sessions. The speakers are IPO experts, business analysts, and representatives of companies, exchanges, regulators and government authorities.

The first forum, which took place on 13 February 2008 at the Luxor complex, covered two issues: new regulations of the RFCA (Regional Financial Center of Almaty) expected to come into force later this year and Deloitte CIS IPO Survey.

RFCA is an important element of Kazakhstan’s economy development and the government of our country takes active measures to improve, develop and support the domestic stock market. RFCA Deputy Chairman, Chingiz Kanapyanov, presented the benefits of new listing rules, RFCA development key points and answered questions of forum’s participants.

In autumn 2007, Deloitte CIS interviewed top managers of companies in the CIS. The results of that survey covered the latest stocks floatation and general trends in choosing a stock market, IPO objectives and management reorganization issues. They were presented by Darryl Hadaway, Deloitte CIS Managing partner in the Caspian Region.