Helping growth companies access U.S. capital markets
A U.S. listing is a long project with many moving parts. We help founders and management teams understand what it really involves, get the business ready, appoint the right professionals, and keep the process moving from first assessment to the day the shares begin trading.
- Focus
- U.S. IPO advisory
- Markets
- Nasdaq · NYSE American
- Partner reach
- Eight jurisdictions
Your ambition. A clear path forward.
We combine cross-border experience with practical execution support, helping growth companies navigate the U.S. listing process with clarity and confidence.
Explore our approach
Built around owner-led businesses considering a U.S. listing
Most of the companies we speak with have a real operating business, a growth plan that needs capital, and no previous experience of the U.S. capital markets. That is exactly the gap we exist to close.
Founders and controlling shareholders
You want a clear answer to a simple question: is a U.S. listing realistic for this business, at this size, in this timeframe — and what would it cost in money, management time and control?
Chief financial officers and finance teams
You need to understand what U.S. reporting will demand of your accounts, your systems and your team long before an auditor arrives, so the preparation happens on your schedule rather than under deadline pressure.
Boards and management teams
You need the listing route, the timetable, the workstreams and the decisions in one place, so the board can govern the project instead of reacting to it.
Professional advisers to Malaysian SMEs
You have a client asking about a U.S. listing and want a specialist who will work alongside you rather than displace the relationship you have built.
Advisory across the full listing lifecycle
We work as the company's adviser and project lead — assessing readiness, shaping the structure, appointing and coordinating the professional team, and keeping every workstream aligned to one timetable.
IPO strategic advisory
Whether a U.S. listing fits the owner's objectives, which route makes sense, and what it will realistically require.
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IPO readiness assessment
A structured diagnostic of the company against what a U.S. listing will require — and a plan to close each gap.
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Transaction structuring
Designing the listing structure — holding company, jurisdiction, share capital and the steps to get from here to there.
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Professional engagement and coordination
Selecting, appointing and then coordinating the auditors, counsel, underwriters and other firms a listing requires.
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Capital markets documentation support
Helping management assemble, review and stress-test the business content that goes into the offering documents.
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Professional adviser coordination
Keeping auditors, counsel, underwriters and registrars aligned to one timetable across several time zones.
Read moreThe work that decides the outcome happens long before the filing
By the time a registration statement is filed, the questions that determine whether a listing succeeds have already been answered. Are the accounts in a form an inspected auditor can sign? Does the entity being listed genuinely own and control the operating business? Can the finance team sustain quarterly reporting once the shares are trading?
We start where those answers are still cheap to change. A readiness assessment sets out, in writing, exactly what stands between the business as it is today and the business a U.S. market will accept — with an owner, an effort and a cost against every item.
It is unglamorous work. It is also the difference between a listing that runs to plan and one that stalls in diligence with the fees already spent.
What a U.S. listing actually looks like
Every transaction differs, and timing depends on the state of the business, the quality of its records and market conditions. The sequence below is the shape most processes follow.
Assessment and decision
Objectives are tested, the business is reviewed against listing requirements, and the board decides whether to proceed. The output is a readiness roadmap and an indicative budget and timetable.
Preparation and restructuring
The longest phase, and the one that determines everything after it. Financial statements are brought to the required standard and audited, the group is reorganised under the listing entity, governance is strengthened and the finance function is prepared for public company reporting.
Appointing the professional team
Auditors, U.S. and local counsel, the underwriter or placement agent, the transfer agent and other service providers are selected, appointed and brought into a single working timetable.
Drafting and diligence
The registration statement is drafted by counsel with substantial input from management, while legal, financial and commercial diligence runs in parallel. Issues surfaced here are resolved before filing wherever possible.
Filing and regulatory review
The registration statement is filed with the SEC, which reviews it and issues comments. Responding takes several rounds. In parallel, the exchange reviews the listing application.
Marketing and pricing
Once the review is substantially complete, the offering is marketed to investors by the underwriter. Management presents the equity story, demand is gathered, and the board approves the final size and price.
Listing and life as a public company
Trading begins and the proceeds are received. Periodic and current reporting obligations start immediately, along with governance requirements, insider dealing controls and investor relations. For most companies this is the real beginning, not the end.
Most listings are delayed by work that could have been done earlier
The formal filing stage is visible and well documented. What usually determines whether a company reaches it on time is the quieter work that comes first.
Audit readiness is a rebuild, not a review
Financial statements prepared for local statutory purposes are rarely in the form a U.S. listing requires. Restating prior years, documenting judgements and evidencing controls takes months, and it cannot be compressed by adding people at the end.
Structure is easier to fix before the filing
Group structure, shareholdings, related-party arrangements and intercompany balances are all examined. Resolving them early is an internal exercise. Resolving them late means amending documents already in front of regulators and investors.
The professional team has to work as one
A listing involves auditors, U.S. and local counsel, underwriters, registrars, transfer agents and others, often across time zones. Without a single point of coordination, workstreams stall while each party waits on another.
Management time is the scarcest resource
The people who must answer diligence questions are the same people running the business. Sequencing the work realistically is the difference between a listing that supports the company and one that distracts it.
Our first deliverable is an assessment, not a proposal. If a U.S. listing is not the right route for what the owner is trying to achieve, that is the more valuable finding.
Jaylvin Chan, Executive Director
Advice from someone who has sat on the other side of the table
JMCG Advisory is led by Jaylvin Chan, Executive Director. He is a Chartered Accountant C.A.(M) and an ASEAN CPA, and he has served as Chief Financial Officer of a Nasdaq-listed company. He has also held a senior finance role at a company pursuing a Nasdaq IPO.
That background shapes how the firm works. The questions a U.S. auditor will ask, the reporting a listed company must sustain after its first day of trading, and the practical strain a listing places on a finance team are all familiar ground rather than theory.
- Chartered Accountant, C.A.(M)
- ASEAN CPA
- Former Chief Financial Officer of a Nasdaq-listed company
- Senior finance role at a company pursuing a Nasdaq IPO
- Experience across structuring, audit readiness, filings and investor communication
Notes on U.S. listings and cross-border reporting
Plain-English writing on preparation, SEC reporting and what changes once a company is public.
Audit readiness is the real starting line
Companies usually date their listing from the day the board decides to proceed. The auditors date it from the earliest financial year that will appear in the filing.
Read articleWhat changes for the finance team the day after listing
The offering is the visible milestone. For the finance function, it is the point at which the workload steps up permanently.
Read articleChoosing a market: the questions that matter more than the thresholds
Quantitative listing standards are easy to look up and easy to over-weight. The harder questions are about what happens after the company qualifies.
Read articleThree markets, three different propositions
Most companies of the size we advise consider one of these. The right answer depends on size, shareholder base, liquidity expectations and what the company intends to do next.
Named for description only. JMCG Advisory Ltd is not affiliated with, endorsed by or approved by any exchange.
Start with an honest assessment
An initial conversation is straightforward: where the business stands today, what a U.S. listing would require of it, and whether the timing makes sense. If it does not, we will say so.