Depending on the stage of business companies are in, there are different ways of financing growth and development, and harmonizing them with the strategic plan. In the mature stage, there are three most prevalent ways in which growth can be financed. One of them is from retained earnings, which is the most common when taking over other companies. Debt financing is the predominant way of financing large investments. The last way, and the one that is covered in this paper, is through the issue of shares, that is, through an initial public offering. An initial public offering represents the sale of part of the ownership (common shares) to interested investors in exchange for the necessary capital, which is esentially less risky than raising capital through debt. The process, participants, and criteria for listing on individual world stock exchanges, as well as the Zagreb Stock Exchange, where the two observed joint stock companies are listed, are presented. The trends in individual sectors related to the absolute quantities of initial offers and realized revenues are shown, and thus the importance of initial offers for the world economy is explained, through the presentation of the total number of initial offers, and the income generated through them over a certain period. How the initial public offering process works on the capital market in the Republic of Croatia is shown through a comparison of two recent public offerings of the companies Meritus investments d.d. (M+ group), and SPAN d.d.. In addition, the secondary offering of Meritus shares is presented, in order to explain the effect that the public offering can have on the company, and on its ability to generate income through it.