What's going on?

Dong Energy, the Denmark-based global leader in offshore wind farms, became a publicly traded company on Thursday (i.e. it completed an Initial Public Offering). And guess what? At a valuation of $15 billion, it was the world�s biggest IPO so far this year.

What does this mean?

Prior to Thursday, Dong was privately owned by, primarily, the Danish government and the investment bank Goldman Sachs (more on that in a moment�). But now anyone can buy shares in the company � and given all the investor interest in green energy, it�s already attracted a lot of interest. Once its shares started trading, they jumped 10% – a good start!

Why should I care?

For the stock: For investors, Dong has both positive and negative prospects. On the one hand, the company has heavily invested in developing offshore wind power generation and believes it is developing the technology to make such energy scalable. It�s also expanding its operations significantly in Asia and the US in order to drive growth. On the other hand, Goldman Sachs and the Danish government remain large shareholders � and it�s very likely that one or both entities will look to sell more shares in the future. That could put downward pressure on the stock price because everyone knows there are big sales of stock to come.

The bigger picture: Dong will appeal to those that target Socially Responsible Investing (SRI). Increasingly, investors are demanding that their investments reflect their personal values. That�s true for many types of investors: from pension funds that, for example, manage teachers� retirement savings to individual investors like you. Typically, they won�t invest in companies that produce carbon-based energy (like oil companies) or other industries that are deemed bad for humankind (for example, tobacco companies). Dong Energy, due to its focus on renewable energy, will likely see plenty of demand from SRI investors.