This thesis examines the performance of IPO firms in the Swedish markets during their first three years of trading to investigate what effects different factors have on the short- and long-term performance. The level of underpricing on Swedish IPOs are also investigated to detect any abnormalities from previous studies on larger markets in the US and Europe. A total of 175 IPO firms included in the sample in the period between 2000 and 2015. The method used to calculate the aftermarket performance is the buy-and-hold abnormal returns method in an event-time portfolio approach. These returns are used as a dependent variable in a multivariable linear regression analysis. The main findings from this study are that IPO firms in the Swedish markets underperform the OMX market index one month and three years after the offering. Conversely, IPO firms in the Swedish markets overperform after 18 months compared to the OMX market index. The results show that Swedish IPOs are on average underpriced and that underpricing has a significant effect on short-term performance. Firm age, offer size and the technology industry also have a significant effect on the first month’s performance of IPO firms; however, there is little support for these factors to affect the longterm performance.

This paper examines the long-run aftermarket performance of Swedish IPOs between 2000- 2016, including two market downturns (the burst of IT and housing bubble). The main objective is to investigate whether performance is explained in terms of firm maturity, which is the main contribution to existing literature. Hence, the final sample of 96 IPOs is ranked by the level of RE/TA ratio, a categorization defined by the life-cycle theory of dividend payouts proposed by DeAngelo et al. (2006). To assess the long-run performance of the different IPO portfolios, two methodologies are applied: BHAR and the Fama-French Three Factor regression. The main finding is that the Swedish IPOs underperform their benchmark reference portfolios 12, 24 and 36 months after the offering. Young IPOs, with low RE/TA, outperform on a one- year basis while no significant results were found for old IPOs with high RE/TA. On a longer term, young IPOs underperform their benchmarks while old IPOs outperform three years after the initial issue. There is no support that younger IPOs exhibit a higher level of underperformance in comparison to older IPOs in the long-run.

The Swedish market has over the past couple of years seen a large increase in companies going public through an IPO. At the same time the capital on the private equity market is increasing for each year which enables companies to stay private longer. Our research focuses on two main areas. First, we investigate if companies that enter the public market at an early stage in the company life cycle have worse aftermarket performance than companies that wait to go public. In our research we will define companies that went public at an early stage as younger than six years at the time of the IPO, based on Brown & Wiles (2015) research, and companies that delayed an IPO as older than six years at the time of the offering. The second area investigates whether the large capital increase on the private equity market have affected the long-run aftermarket performance of IPOs.  Our dataset consists of 746 Swedish IPOs from four different Swedish stock exchanges. We will collect long-run aftermarket performance data from companies that conducted an IPO between the years 2003-2018. The long-run aftermarket performance will be measured over a three-year period. Both buy and hold abnormal returns (BHAR) and monthly abnormal returns are used to analyze the aftermarket performance of the IPO firms. Our main findings are that Swedish IPOs generally underperform the reference market index in the long run. Additionally, we find that the underperformance is generated by companies that conduct an early IPO, which makes us question the IPO readiness of these young companies. We also show that profitability is a key determinant for greater IPO aftermarket performance. Lastly, we do not provide any support that the increase in capital on the private equity markets have any effect on the IPO aftermarket performance. However, the results indicate that companies who went public after the increase of capital perform worse. In our research we contribute with practical variables for retail investors to focus on when investing in IPOs and provide companies with useful information on how to increase the chances of a successful IPO.