Although the exact date is sketchy, it is believed that PNM's stock began trading over the counter sometime in the 1940s, says Hagan, making the utility the oldest public company in the state. Stanford, at First State Bank, chuckled over the subject of government regulation. But we're in such a regulated industry, we're used to it. We just make another copy of everything and send it along to the next branch of government wanting information on us. But Stanford also pointed to the many advantages of being a publicly held company.
Most public companies relate to raising capital-that's the fuel.
Take, for example, a construction firm with only 3 to 5 percent growth per year, says Arias. The owners decide to go public and embark on a growth plan. They could transform the company from a stodgy, not terribly exciting, low-growth operation into a company growing at an exponential rate. Indeed, growth that might even be called rapid-fire seems to characterize most of the public companies headquartered in New Mexico. It now has more than 36,000 beds in the United States and more than 7,800 beds in the United Kingdom.