7.13 A flotation on the capital markets is able to provide larger injections of equity funding than is usually possible through any other means. The transaction will, however, require significant external financial and legal advice and this is only therefore likely to be an attractive option if the JV is a company of substantial size and has an established track record. There are many issues to be considered before an entity can raise money in this way, in particular: the diversion of key management time during the fund raising process and afterwards; the costs of compliance with stock exchange rules; and the consequences of share price fluctuations on staff morale and trading participants. Some relevant guidance can be found in HM Treasury guidance for public sector bodies conducting flotations.63
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63 HM Treasury Getting best value from flotations, November 2000. www.archive.treasury.gov.uk/pep/flotation.pdf.