Dutch-auction IPOs: institutional development and underpricing performance

The Dutch-auction method of bringing IPOs to market has been used sparingly since its initiation in 1999 despite the potential for this method to lead to more fully-priced issues. The development of Dutch-auctioned IPOs is documented here, and institutional details are reviewed. An empirical investigation of the characteristics of these IPOs is presented. The evidence indicates smaller magnitudes of underpricing of Dutch-auctioned IPOs relative to traditional IPOs. A multi-variate analysis indicates, however, that this smaller degree of underpricing is due to factors other than the Dutch-auction process. The evidence strongly reinforces the institutional rationing hypothesis for underpricing. It also contributes to the international evidence of the failure of auctioned IPOs to avoid underpricing.     

Abnormal returns of thrift versus non-thrift IPOs

This paper examines the issue of underpricing for converting thrift institutions. Evidence has found this underpricing to be pervasive in the mutual-to-stock thrift conversion process. The issue is of importance given the debate over whether any windfall gains should accrue to depositors, managers, or taxpayers. An event study is conducted to determine if there is a significant difference between the initial returns of thrift and non-thrift IPOs. Our overall results indicate that a significant difference does exist.     

A model for IPO pricing and contract choice decision

This paper attempts to reconcile the average underpricing phenomenon with the expected wealth maximizing behaviors of market participants. Under the usual informational asymmetry, the optimal offer price for best efforts IPOs is derived as a function of the uncertainty about market’s valuation, the expected return on proposed projects and the size of offerings relative to the firm’s market value. According to these firm-specific characteristics, best efforts IPOs can be underpriced, fairly priced, or overpriced. Employing the investment banker as an outside information producer, the basic pricing model is extended to provide empirical implication for underwriting contract choice decision as well as for the pricing. Consistent with the existing empirical evidences, the model predicts that the issuers with greater uncertainty about market’s valuation choose best efforts contract over firm commitment contract and that the dispersion of initial returns would be greater for best efforts IPOs than for firm commitment IPOs.     

A tax-based motive for the underpricing of initial public offerings

This paper presents a model of entrepreneurial wealth maximization for the pricing of initial public offerings (IPOs). It is an extension of one previously presented in the literature. The model shows that personal tax rates on ordinary income and capital gains may, in part, determine IPO pricing: an increase in the capital gains tax rate should lower the degree of underpricing. An empirical analysis of the effect of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which raised the capital gains tax rate, shows that the average degree of underpricing did decrease as predicted, and that this occurs after controlling for other possible influences.     

The day of the week effect in IPO initial returns

Monday IPOs occur infrequently and have higher mean initial returns than those issued on other days. The latter result is not a product of outliers or penny stocks and remains after controlling for factors related to IPO underpricing. The Monday effect is generally robust across time, but during 1995–2003 is present only in IPOs with their first reported trade on their offer date. Volume patterns suggest Monday IPOs come to market later in the day, which has been linked to higher initial returns. We argue that the observed patterns are consistent with the incentives of underwriters and investors.     

How Does Ambiguity Influence IPO Underpricing? The Role of the Signalling Environment

We explore the relationship between ambiguity, or low information clarity, in the IPO prospectus of newly public firms and their underpricing. Consistent with signalling theory, we find that IPO underpricing is low when the prospectus contains less ambiguous information that creates a more reliable signal conveying the quality of the IPO firm. However, the positive association between ambiguity and IPO underpricing is less pronounced when IPO firms display low strategic conformity with other firms in the industry, operate in industries with high valuation heterogeneity, or are medium‐sized. Using a sample of 398 IPOs between 1998 and 2007, our results support these predictions. This study shows the importance of the signalling environment influencing boundedly rational signal recipients interpreting ambiguous signals.     

Initial public offerings by mutual thrifts: The regulatory impact

This study analyzes the abnormal returns from a sample of 311 mutual thrift IPOs to investigate the presence of deliberate underpricing and to measure the impact of the changing regulatory environment. The large initial returns are maintained over the following year, indicating deliberate underpricing. Cross-sectional regressions show that the adjusted returns are positively related to the percentage of insiders participating in the IPO and to the size of the conversion. The adjusted returns significantly decrease after regulations are tightened, and there is a rapid rise in adjusted returns when uncertainty is introduced relating to the actual impact of these regulations. (JEL G280)     

中国沪市IPO抑价组成的实证研究

IPO抑价现象自被提出之日就受到了众多学者的关注,根据对IPO抑价组成的分析,我们认为IPO抑价应该包含故意抑价和由投资者非理性行为引起的抑价两部分。本文将利用随机前沿模型对中国IPO抑价的组成进行实证研究。     

Early internet IPOs versus subsequent entrants

This paper examines whether investors in early Internet IPOs earned superior returns to those who invested in later entrants. We document three differences between early public firms in a new Internet technology and their followers: underpricing, operating characteristics at the IPO, and stock price performance after the IPO. We find that there is value in going public relatively early in a new Internet technology. Specifically, long-term returns are significantly higher for the early entrants. We also find evidence, consistent with previous studies that examine hot IPO markets, that the early public firms have better operating characteristics at the IPO than later entrants.     

Managing Underpricing? The Case of Pre‐IPO Discretionary Accruals in China

Previous studies have found that companies use income‐increasing positive discretionary accruals (DAC) prior to initial public offerings (IPOs) to inflate earnings as a signal to anticipate future income and future dividends. This study, directly explores the role of DAC in prospectus information of 691 A‐shares IPOs in China during the period 1995–2002 and its relationship with market‐adjusted returns. The results suggest that in China, pre‐IPO non‐discretionary accruals (NDAC) as well as DAC have informative value in explaining first‐day returns as well as first‐year adjusted returns. However, in yearly cross‐sectional models, I find that firms use income‐decreasing accruals (conservative accounting) in prospectus financial statements. This downward manipulation or income “understatement” creates a regulatory setting that could explain initial underpricing and abnormally high IPO returns for A‐shares. In addition, the results show that as state ownership (SO) increases, cash flow also increases, exacerbating agency costs and adverse selection problems. These findings may suggest that managers might be using more conservative accounting in Prospectus financial data to offset the agency costs related to high cash flow, and high SO, by “banking income” and possibly therefore “smoothing” the effects of possible future suboptimal earnings.     

Are government-linked IPOs underpriced? A three country privatization effort comparison

Underpricing in the case of the initial public offerings of private (non-government) firms has been well documented. However, there does not appear to be any systematic study of the price performance of “government-linked” companies or GLCs, which have been “privatized” through public offerings in the stock market. This study examines the hypothesis that the initial public offerings (IPOs) of such companies in the United Kingdom, Singapore, and Malaysia will not only be underpriced, but their degree of underpricing will be relatively greater when compared to firms with no governmental links. The results provide strong support for this hypothesis.     

Valuation uncertainty and IPOs: Investment bank versus commercial bank underwriters

This paper tests commercial bank underwriting for the existence of a conflict of interest versus a certification role. Our tests compare samples of equity IPOs underwritten by both commercial and investment banks. We examine the degree of asymmetric information present in the market for these issues by examining their microstructure trading characteristics. Our results show that greater information asymmetry is present in the after-market when a commercial bank acts as underwriter. The asymmetry resolves itself as the market learns more about each issue, deciding which ones may have involved a conflict. This is consistent with greater uncertainty about the value of commercial-bank-underwritten IPOs, and is also consistent with the market perceiving a possible conflict of interest on the part of commercial banks.     

地理位置对上市公司IPO抑价的影响——基于区域金融密度的实证研究

基于区域金融密度的视角研究地理位置对上市公司IPO抑价的影响问题。基于信息不对称理论和信息不对称假说,研究发现上市公司所在地的金融密度越高,上市公司IPO抑价越低。选取2006—2016年我国A股市场820家 IPO企业作为样本,构建了多元回归模型,经实证分析发现地理位置与上市公司IPO抑价之间呈显著的负相关关系,即高金融密度地区上市企业 IPO 抑价率要显著低于低金融密度地区上市企业的IPO抑价率。     

The effect of firm financial characteristics and the availability of alternative finance on IPO underpricing

This article tests the hypothesis that the financial characteristics of the issuing firm, along with the availability of alternative sources of financing, are important determinants of the level of underpricing. While risk and its relationship to underpricing have been examined in previous studies, liquidity risk is unique because of its special implications for a firm’s bargaining position with the underwriter. Consistent with my hypothesis, firms with greater liquidity concerns at the IPO experience greater underpricing. On the other hand, firms with higher levels of venture capital funding and/or debt financing are more fully priced.     

Diamonds in the rough: The value of scouting for early-stage funding

IPOs of small early-stage companies have largely declined in the last few decades. Governments and exchanges have responded with new regulations to encourage access for small firms to public markets. Critics caution, however, that lower standards for going public may be worse for investors. In this paper, we document one exchange’s approach to encourage small IPOs: founders establish shell companies through which to scout and promote funding of early-stage companies. We find that founders earn compensatory returns for their search role, and that the average long-term performance of these companies is similar to that of small conventional IPOs, underscoring that conventional IPOs may fail to identify or screen companies of similar quality asymmetrically. Consistent with prior literature on small IPOs, the long-term post-IPO performance of both the conventional and alternative funding processes are highly right-skewed and poor, on average, but not statistically different.     

Issues in the Design and Reform of Commodity Taxes: Analytical Results and Empirical Evidence

The motivation of this paper is two fold: (a) review the literature on design and reform of commodity taxes, (b) describe attempts at extending the traditional framework. The paper states the principal results in optimal commodity taxation with attention paid to assumptions made in their derivation. Empirical evidence on the structure of optimal commodity taxes is presented with special reference to the issue of uniformity versus selectivity, and the redistributive potential of commodity taxes. The paper, then, provides analytical and empirical evidence on the following extensions to the traditional framework: (i) presence of child subsidy and demographic effects on demand, (ii) fiscal federalism, (iii) tax evasion.     

Founders' Characteristics,Venture Capital Syndication and Governance in Entrepreneurial IPOs

Using a unique sample of 444 entrepreneurial IPOs in the UK and France this paper examines links between founders' characteristics, venture capital (VC) syndication and the development of effective boards in entrepreneurial firms. It argues that VC-backed IPOs suffer from two sets of agency problems which are related to principal-agent and principal-principal relationships between the founders and members of the VC syndicate. The empirical evidence shows that there is a curvilinear relationship between the intensity of founders' external ties and VC syndication. Founders' retained share ownership is negatively associated with VC syndication. We also find that in syndicated IPOs there is a higher involvement of passive private equity firms and “business angels” investing alongside VC firms, both in terms of their number and equity presence. VC-syndicated IPOs have more independent boards than IPOs with no VC involvement. Board independence is negatively associated with founders' retained equity. These results are consistent with the assumption that board independence is used to mitigate agency costs associated with VC involvement in IPO firms. Our findings also identify significant differences in governance characteristics between the UK and France. While French IPOs have less independent boards, they involve more VC backing in general and syndicated VC funding in particular, than UK IPOs.     

Spin-offs to stock markets as a complementary form of entrepreneurship: Contrasting US,UK and Japanese experiences

This study explores the impact of the national institutional environment on the listing of firms on stock exchanges in Japan, the US, and the UK. In particular, the study compares the incidence of: (1) independent firm initial public offerings (IPOs); and (2) the subsidiaries of established corporations being spun-off to stock markets. An empirical analysis is conducted on a sample of 9118 IPOs extracted from the Securities Data Company New Issue Database. The results show that Japan and the UK are more active in incubating new innovative ventures within large corporations and spinning them to the stock markets than their general entrepreneurial activity would suggest. These results direct our attention to different forms of industrial renewal in different institutional environments.     

创业投资声誉、创业板IPOs初始收益和长期业绩

以我国创业板市场IPOs为样本,引入创业投资声誉对IPO折抑价理论模型进行修正,采用多元回归和两阶段回归方法,实证检验创业投资声誉与创业板IPOs初始收益和长期业绩之间的关系后发现:我国创业板市场中创业投资核证监督作用微弱;创业投资声誉对IPOs初始收益无显著影响;创业投资声誉对IPO后企业长期业绩有显著正效应。本文的研究结论对创投声誉下的创业板发行制度建设有积极作用。