The Characteristics of initial public offering for innovative small and medium-sized firms: the case of young french bio/medtech firms[Les modalités d’introduction en bourse des PME-ETI innovantes:le cas des jeunes pépites bio/medtech françaises]

The various government measures in favor of innovative SMEs, the number of biotechnology firms listed on the stock exchange over the last ten years, the characteristics of their pre-introduction financing are different factors that justify a particular interest for these firms and their methods of introduction (discount, float, quotation procedure). Different tests of mean difference have significant results. Comparing with a control sample, we found that SME in this sector are listed on the stock exchange faster, by making greater use of the open-price offer procedure (OPO) and are subject to greater prior financing by financial stockholders. Although the ownership of the capital and the disengagement of the financial stockholders, who are also the main shareholders, are larger, we do not see any significant difference with the control firms. For these biotech companies, the disengagement of financial shareholders is characterized more by a dilution effect of their participation because none sells securities and does not wish to subscribe for new shares at the time of the introduction. This article has also made it possible to characterize, in depth, the firms in this sector, in particular the financial shareholders participating in the financing. The results obtained by the regressions do not reveal any significant variables that may explain the discount or the size of the dilution relative to the float rate.