Underpricing of New Equity Offerings by Privatized Firms: An International Test

Qi Huang and Richard M. Levich

New York University, Leonard N. Stern School Finance Department Working Paper Seires from New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business-

Abstract: In this paper, we study a large sample of 507 privatization offerings from 39 countries over the period 1979-1996. Our objectives are twofold. First, we document the extent of short-run underpricing of these privatization offerings and measure their variation across countries, industries, and years, as well as drawing comparisons to private company IPOs. Second, we test alternative explanations of the determinants of short-run underpricing drawing on various models of maximizing behavior by underwriters, augmented by variables that proxy for national political objectives. Overall, we find support for elements of asymmetric information theory, investor sentiment theory and the reputation building hypothesis. With the exception of the Gini coefficient, our political proxy variables are typically not significant. Thus to a significant degree, the investment banking strategies believed to characterize IPOs of private companies in industrial countries may also play a role in the IPO strategies of state-owned-enterprises in both industrial and lesser developed economies.

Date: 1999-09-14
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.stern.nyu.edu/fin/workpapers/papers99/wpa99075.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (http://www.stern.nyu.edu/fin/workpapers/papers99/wpa99075.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.stern.nyu.edu/fin/workpapers/papers99/wpa99075.pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fth:nystfi:99-075

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in New York University, Leonard N. Stern School Finance Department Working Paper Seires from New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business- U.S.A.; New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics . 44 West 4th Street. New York, New York 10012-1126. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Thomas Krichel ().