This paper empirically analyses the determinants of an initial public offering (IPO) and the consequences of this decision on a company's investment and financial policy. We compare both the ex-ante and the ex-post characteristics of IPOs with those of a large sample of privately held companies of similar size. We find that: (i) the likelihood of an IPO is positively related to the market-to-book ratio prevailing in the relevant industrial sector and to a company's size; (ii) IPOs are followed by an abnormal reduction in profitability; (iii) the new equity capital raised upon listing is not used to finance subsequent investment and growth, but to reduce leverage; (iv) going public reduces the cost of bank credit; and (v) it is often associated with equity sales by controlling shareholders, and is followed by a higher turnover of control than for other companies.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
file. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number
1332.
Find related papers by JEL classification: G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Investment Policy G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Capital and Ownership Structure
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
De Long, J Bradford & Andrei Shleifer & Lawrence H. Summers & Robert J. Waldmann, 1990.
"Noise Trader Risk in Financial Markets,"
Journal of Political Economy,
University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(4), pages 703-38, August.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
Loughran, Tim & Ritter, Jay R, 1995.
" The New Issues Puzzle,"
Journal of Finance,
American Finance Association, vol. 50(1), pages 23-51, March.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.) This item has more than 25 citations. To prevent cluttering this page, these citations are listed on a separate page.