After floating the company on the stock exchange the following year, he expanded ...
What does the underlined part mean?
org/wiki/float#Verb : To issue or sell shares in a company to members of the public, followed by listing on a stock exchange.
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This is sense 14 of "float" at https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/float#Verb :
To issue or sell shares in a company to members of the public, followed by listing on a stock exchange.