Placing unlisted shares of private companies onto liquidity platforms is gaining in attraction. The notion of a private listing may seem an oxymoron, but having the liquidity and currency of a listing with all the benefits of remaining private would seem to be corporate finance nirvana.
Large, unlisted technology companies such as Facebook are trying to find ways of getting liquidity into these private held shares, without all the pain of going public. Recently, Alibaba Group, the parent of Hong Kong listed Alibaba.com, provided liquidity to its shareholders though the secondary markets, which allowed its employees and early investors to enjoy something of an exit. That made us curious to...