Stock vs. stock-warrant units: evidence from seasoned offerings

Recent theories based on sequential financing and information signaling reveal a special role for warrants. Data from initial public offerings (IPOs) of stock-warrant units have been used to test the theories, and we extend the analysis to seasoned offerings. Consistent with predictions from both families of theories, we find that issues made by smaller and younger firms are more likely to involve stock-warrant units, and firms with greater stock price volatility are more likely to issue units in seasoned offerings. Moreover, firms with relatively high levels of long-term debt, and those whose issues are underwritten by less prestigious underwriters are more likely to employ stock-warrant unit financing. Consistent with information signaling, we find that firms with high managerial ownership are more likely to issue units. Firms that include warrants in their stock offerings are predicted to have experienced higher abnormal stock returns than if they had issued shares alone. Thus, consistent with both theoretical explanations, some firms can reduce capital costs by adding warrants to shares in seasoned offerings.     

The role of lending-relationship banks in the underwriting of seasoned equity offerings: Conflict of interest or certification?

Sections 20 and 32 of the 1933 Glass–Steagall Act address a potential conflict of interest by banning commercial banks from the market for corporate securities underwriting. This restriction was officially rescinded in 1999 by the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Financial Modernization Act. In turn, this development has piqued the interest of scholars and renewed the debate on the role that commercial banks play, as well as the consequences of this role in equity offerings, which may either result in conflict of interest or certification. In this study, we comprehensively examine whether conflict of interest or certification more accurately characterizes the underwriting of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) by lending-relationship banks. Overall, the results suggest that the presence of lending-relationship banks lowers the gross spreads and underpricing of SEOs. Furthermore, our evidence shows that SEOs led by lending-relationship banks exhibit better long-run performance than other SEOs, which supports the certification hypothesis.     

中小上市公司股权再融资理论综述

中小上市公司股权再融资是中小企业上市后股权融资的后续过程,研究中小上市公司股权再融资的性质与特点,对中小企业的创新、发展与壮大具有重要作用。本文从公司股权再融资发行方式和长期负效应两个方面着手,回顾并归纳了西方经典理论对股权再融资发行方式之“谜”,以及股权再融资负面效应即长期业绩恶化、长期非正常股票收益显著为负现象的解释。并结合中小上市公司的特点,提出了中小公司股权再融资发行方式和长期负效应方面的结论。     

增发的时机:制度差异与含义

国外针对新股增发的研究表明,新股增发后会出现显著的业绩走低,这可能是由于经理往往会抓住产业高峰的时机进行增发所导致。中国证券市场的增发审批制度与国外完全不同,我们有兴趣的是,类似现象在中国是否存在,制度的差异是否限制了经理对增发时机的把握。本文通过实证研究,发现我国上市公司增发后并没有出现显著的长期业绩走低现象,可以由此推断:上市公司增发股价并没有被明显高估,也不存在公司经理利用产业高峰时机窗口进行增发的可能性。     

The effects of bank regulation stringency on seasoned equity offering announcements

We study the relation between bank regulation stringency and announcement effects of seasoned equity offerings across 21 countries. Under a low to moderate bank regulation environment, the market reacts more positively to the bank SEO announcements for an increase in the level of bank regulation. However, the bank SEO announcement effects become more negative if the bank regulation becomes too stringent. This inverted U-shaped relation is robust after we use the exogenous cross-country and cross-year variation in the timing of the Basel II adoption as an instrument to assess the causal impact of bank regulation on SEO announcement effects. Bank regulation has no significant impact of SEO announcement effects if the equity offering is involuntary.     

When do high stock returns trigger equity issues?

One of the most prominent stylized facts in corporate finance is that equity issues tend to follow periods of high stock returns. We document that firms exhibit such timing behavior only in response to high returns that coincide with strong institutional investor demand. When not accompanied by institutional purchases, stock price increases have little impact on the likelihood of equity issuance. The results highlight the importance of market reception for the timing of equity issues.     

Influence of media coverage and sentiment on seasoned equity offerings

This article examines the role of media in seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) price and market reactions on SEO announcements. Using a sample of SEO deals in UK, we find that media coverage is significantly and negatively related to SEO price discounts and market returns around SEO announcements. Moreover, we document that more pessimistic media sentiment predicts larger SEO price discounts and more negative market reactions to SEO announcements. In summary, both media coverage and media sentiment influence investor decisions in SEOs, but through different mechanisms.     

Earnings management of seasoned equity offering firms in Korea

We investigated 249 Korean seasoned equity offering (SEO) firms during the period 1995-1997 to determine if the SEO firms manage earnings in the year before a planned issue of seasoned equity stocks. Using three test methods (accrual difference, correlation, and sign-change), we found that the Korean firms contemplating SEOs in the following year do manage earnings particularly when their relative performances have been poor. The results are robust irrespective of control samples. Analysis of operating performances around SEOs shows that SEO firms tend to increase reported earnings in the year immediately preceding and the year of SEOs, but no differences were found in operating cash flows between the SEO firms and the control firms. By using a regression analysis for discretionary accruals, we found that SEO firms are more likely to manage earnings if the operating performances are poor and if the offer sizes are relatively large. Association tests between stock returns and discretionary accruals indicate that the market reacts positively to net income but negatively to discretionary accruals. The results indicate that the market correctly analyzes the cash flow implications of the SEO firms' opportunistic use of discretionary accruals.     

投资者是否被上市公司的盈余管理行为所误导?——来自配股融资的证据

为了获得配股资格和提高配股价格，上市公司具有通过调整异常应计利润来提升报告盈余的强烈动机。本文使用横截面修正的Jones模型研究了配股公司盈余管理的时间序列分布特征．并分析了异常应计利润与配股后运营业绩和股票长期收益的关系。研究结果表明，配股公司在配股前3个年度和配股当年都具有较高的异常应计利润，而配股后运营业绩和股票长期收益趋于下降，异常应计利润与配股后的股票长期收益具有显著的负相关关系。投资者由于没有能够及时“看穿”配股公司的盈余管理行为而暂时高估了股票价值，从而被上市公司的盈余管理行为所误导。     

Investor sentiment,SEO market timing,and stock price performance

This article details an investigation of the impact of investor sentiment on the probability of firms conducting seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) and on stock price performance around and subsequent to SEOs. The results show that investor sentiment has a positive impact on SEO probability and that this impact is stronger for small and young firms. Furthermore, firms conducting SEOs during high sentiment periods experience less severe short-run price drops around the issuance yet more severe post-issue long-run underperformance, compared with firms conducting SEOs during low sentiment periods. These effects of investor sentiment on stock price performance are stronger for small, young, and high market-to-book ratio firms.