New research has revealed the companies that went public the slowest, with half taking over a century to offer shares on the stock market.
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The research, undertaken by Tide, looked at 100 of the companies with the highest market caps and researched the date they were founded and the date when they first offered shares for public purchase.
The Slowest Companies To Reach Their IPO
| Rank | Name | Industry | Market cap | Founded Year | IPO Year | Founded to IPO (Years) |
| 1 | Hermès | Luxury goods | $156.36 B | 1837 | 1999 | 162 |
| 2 | Philip Morris | Tobacco | $156.07 B | 1847 | 2008 | 161 |
| 3 | Goldman Sachs | Investment | $131.47 B | 1869 | 1999 | 130 |
| 4 | Berkshire Hathaway | Holding Company | $618.28 B | 1839 | 1965 | 126 |
| 5 | Linde | Chemicals | $154.90 B | 1879 | 2002 | 123 |
| 6 | Bank of China | Banking | $129.29 B | 1912 | 2006 | 94 |
| 7 | Pfizer | Health | $246.49 B | 1849 | 1942 | 93 |
| 8 | United Parcel Service | Logistics | $163.55 B | 1907 | 1999 | 92 |
| 9 | Merck & Co. | Health | $181.71 B | 1891 | 1980 | 89 |
| 10 | Honeywell | Holding company | $148.66 B | 1906 | 1993 | 87 |
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Hermes Years to IPO: 162
Hermes International SCA (EPA:RMS) is one of the most exclusive luxury brands in the world and is still majority-owned by the founding Hermès-Dumas family.
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Philip Morris Years to IPO: 161
Tobacco giant Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) took the second-longest amount of time to reach an IPO, only doing so 161 years after the company was founded.
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Goldman Sachs Years to IPO: 130
In third place is investment firm Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) which took 130 years to launch its IPO in 1999, the same year as Hermès.
Further Insights:
- India’s largest private bank was born in 1994 as a subsidiary of the Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), and by 1995 was already announcing its IPO.
- Kweichow Moutai Co., Ltd. (SHA:600519) is one of the joint second-quickest companies to reach IPO with Texas Instruments Incorporated (NASDAQ:TXN)
- E-commerce companies are the fastest industry to reach IPOs. On average, it takes around 8.75 years for an e-commerce company to go public.
- The second quickest industry to reach an IPO is professional services, which includes firms that offer consulting, accountancy and IT services.
