The Effects of the Reporting of Off‐Balance‐Sheet Investments on EPS Uncertainty,Leverage and Shareholders’ Wealth

The degree of control over operations affects the quality of information provided to investors. Uncertainty about operating performance increases following the first equity method (EM) reporting of off‐balance‐sheet investments, but only when the investments are joint ventures (JVs). Partners in JVs report lower levels of debt. These results are not due to informational deficiencies of the EM, but to the riskier nature of JVs. Long‐run stock performance analysis indicates that investors experience normal risk‐adjusted returns when investing in firms with economically significant off‐balance sheet investments.     

How Does Uncertainty Resolution Affect VC Syndication?

We use the external certification due to the FDA 510(k) clearance process in the medical device industry as a natural experiment and analyze the dynamics of the syndicate formation of venture capital (VC) firms under various levels of uncertainty. We test several nonmutually exclusive hypotheses on project selection, second opinion, collusion, and diversification. Our results suggest that FDA 510(k) clearance serves as an outside certification and reduces uncertainty leading to greater amounts of capital flowing into the company from a larger group of investors. Our results also suggest that experienced VC firms are able to identify promising projects early on without the need for external 510(k) certification or second opinion.