In this thesis we analyze the financial performance of Football clubs following an initial public offering (IPO). We conduct several analyses using time series stock data with a focus on finding evidence of long-run underperformance and IPO over/underpricing. To this end, we estimate cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) and Jensen’s Alpha. We also analyze coefficients such as beta to describe the volatility and the link football clubs’ stocks have to the general market. We look at historical events that may have affected the movement of stock prices and confirm this by benchmarking an index (STOXX index) compiled of a number of European football teams. Our results show that football clubs do in fact follow the clear pattern of other entities and sectors and previous research with regard to underperformance in the long run. We find that football clubs’ stocks are less volatile than the general market and have a low beta. With regards to over/underpricing, we only obtain data for a few football clubs. We find small signs of underpricing but are not able to confirm that this is statistical significant due to the size of our sample.

Syfte: Att undersöka sambandet mellan börsnotering och omsättningstillväxt hos primärnoterade företag på Nasdaq OMX Stockholm. Studien avgränsas till att undersöka noteringens påverkan endast på omsättningstillväxten, under en sjuårsperiod. Teori: Den teoretiska referensramen som appliceras i studien är till för att besvara syftet och forskningsfrågorna. Studien använder sig främst av tidigare forskning som bas. Metod: Studien utgår från en kvantitativ forskningspunkt med statistisk tyngd. Undersökningen genomförs genom insamling av årsrapporter från börsnoterade företag från databasen Retreiver Business. Datan analyseras genom linjär regression och säkerställs statistiskt genom hypotesprövningar. Empiri: Empirin baseras på den insamlade datan från Retriver Bussines, som sedan gestaltas i tre regressionsanalyser för sjuårsperioden som sedan testas statistiskt. I två av de tre regressionerna kan vi statistiskt säkerställa sambandet. Slutsats: Studien slutsatser grundar sig i regressionsanalyserna där sambandet mellan omsättningstillväxt och tid illustreras. Av studien kan slutsatsen om ett positivt samband mellan börsnotering och ökad omsättningstillväxt

ABSTRACT TWO ESSAYS ON INVESTOR SENTIMENT AND EQUITY OFFERINGS BY HSIN-HUI CHIU May 2, 2006 Committee Chair: Dr. Jason T. Greene Major Department: Finance Using monthly open-end mutual fund flows as a proxy for investor sentiment, I am able to examine the impact of sentiment on IPO volume and underpricing. I find that issuers’ filing decisions are significantly affected by the predicted future sentiment around the expected IPO dates. Furthermore, sentiment has an impact on the final offer price setting and over-allotment options exercised. While previous research documents IPO cycles with respect to other proxies for investor sentiment, I am able to examine IPO cycles and underpricing with respect to sentiment along with investor risk preferences. I hypothesize that a going public firm will try to issue its IPO when investor risk preferences are favorable to the firm’s own risk characteristics. Empirical results based on 5,661 initial public offerings between 1986 and 2004 are consistent with my hypotheses that issuers not only time the market with sentiment in general, but also attempt to incorporate investor risk preferences into their going public decisions. Furthermore, underpricing is more severe when firms issue equity during months with large inflows into equity mutual funds. In my second essay, I find that SEO firms appear to time market efficiently because of the shorter filing periods compared to the average 2-3 months of the IPOs. Also, sentiment not only affects a SEO offer price setting but also affects the over-allotment options exercised. I examine two subgroups of the SEO samples: shelf registration and non-shelf SEOs. I find that shelf-registered SEOs incorporate investor sentiment into offering price to a greater degree compared to regular SEOs. Lastly I find that investor risk preference plays a role in firms’ decision to file prospectuses with the SEC. In other words, firms rationally decide the timing of filing based on the predicted investor preference and try to match firm characteristics with investor preference around the expected SEO date.

The purpose of this research is to study the effect of market conditions on the performance of IPOs which is relevant information for investors and companies alike, involved with IPOs. The long-term underperformance of IPOs has been previously discussed by Loughran & Ritter (1995) which has later been named as the “New Issuance Puzzle” of IPOs. This underperformance, however, has later been contradicted by research from Carter et al. (2011) who did not find long-term underperformance of IPOs. By studying the previous research of Helwege & Liang (2004), who examined IPO issuances under different hot and cold IPO periods, we found a research gap of what effect the market conditions have on the IPO issuance.   By analysing the performance under different time periods, we compare the results to an index benchmark with matching time periods of the IPO issuing companies under our full sample period. We can then analyse the performance of the IPOs compared to their respective benchmark. By adding an analysis of hot/cold and bull/bear market conditions under which the IPOs were conducted, we will observe the effect of IPO performance under different market conditions.   Our positivistic and ontological view guided our article and research process. We relied on a deductive approach in order to test our anticipated outcomes and hypotheses. Articles yielding substantive theories, based on the explanation of middle-range theories serve as the benchmark of our theoretical framework.   The research came to a conclusion where we did not observe underperformance of the IPOs in the long-term, which contradicts the “New Issuance Puzzle” of Loughran & Ritter (1995). We could observe underperformance (overperformance) of IPOs under hot (cold) period market conditions when we defined the hot and cold market periods in accordance with the number of IPO issuance during each year. In accordance to initial first month IPO returns, we observe overperformance (underperformance) of hot (cold) period IPOs. We also included bull and bear market conditions into our research, where we could find patterns that the number of issuance had the same distribution as the bull and bear market conditions currently consisting on the market. The index of OMXS30 had the same price movement as the number of issuance each year. Therefore the number of issuance each year could hypothetically be used as an indicator of the future market performance of the OMX Stockholm. We did not find statistical significance of abnormal returns on the IPO market under different market conditions

The restrictive listing requirements imposed by the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange results in the listing of high quality companies, while at the same time provides a higher degree of investor protection. These requirements can however be an obstacle for small and growing companies to go public and raise capital. Thus AIM has developed in order to facilitate the growth of these companies by its lighter listing requirements. This thesis is focused on three outcomes of the lighter listing requirements of AIM. First, AIM companies have a high ownership concentration and lower investor protection, thus enabling blockholders to have a significant impact on their value. This thesis finds that non-managerial and managerial blockholders have quadratic and cubic relationships with firm value respectively. Also, both types of blockholder increase the value of the firm until the first break point which is approximately 30 percent. This is almost exactly the point that the LSE defines as a cut-off point at which the blockholder is regarded as a controlling shareholder. Second, companies moving from the Main market to the AIM impair their information environment when entering the AIM; the information environment is measured by the stock’s liquidity and volatility. This thesis finds that firms experience lower trading activity and lower trading volume, which results in lower liquidity and volatility than matched companies that remain in the Main Market. Third, IPOs listing in the AIM are underpriced in order to compensate for risk. However, the level of underpricing can be alleviated by appointing a reputable Nomad. Underpricing facilitates IPOs to achieve higher aftermarket liquidity in two ways: First, directly by attracting investor attention; and second by diversifying ownership. However, aftermarket liquidity is evident for a longer period than other markets because of a longer lock up period.

I denna uppsats är syftet att undersöka om högteknologiska- underprissätts mer jämfört med icke-högteknologiska företag. Detta gäller genomförandet av IPOs första januari mellan åren 2000 till 2017. Studien analyserar data från 2537 företag som genomförde IPOs påde amerikanska marknaderna, NYSE och NASDAQ. Högteknologiska företag visar sig präglas av större underprissättning jämfört med icke-högteknologiska företag. Ålder på det utfärdande företaget samt antal garanter i IPO-syndikatet är två variabler som denna studie finner har en negativ signifikant korrelation på underprissättningen. Slutligen visar studien att företag som stöttas av venture capital- eller private equity-företag och årtalet då IPOn genomfördes har en positiv korrelation till underprissättning.

In the first essay using a sample of 3437 U.S. companies over the period 1992-2014, I demonstrate that international business activities of newly listed firms influence their corporate policies. Specifically, firms earning foreign pre-tax income at an early phase of their growth and development have higher investment and a higher propensity to acquire. I show that cash holdings are lower for firms involved in foreign activities, supportive of Duchin’s (2010) coinsurance theory. Further, CEOs of globally diversified firms have less pay-for-performance sensitivity than those of purely domestic firms. The second essay examines the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX, 2002) on excess valuation calculated with the “chop shop” approach, which is typically used to measure the diversification discount. The results indicate a significant drop in excess valuation after SOX for both pure-play and multi-segment companies. Additional investigation of the calculation methodology and a difference-in-differences model show no distinction in this impact between un-accelerated and accelerated companies. There is no evidence to support that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act leads firms to diversify or focus. I run several robustness tests by including 2003 observations, creating a 2000-2006 subsample, excluding geographic segments. Finally, when in a firm's life would it fit for it to become involved in global strategies? What are the important influences on the decisions of young and mature firms to go international? I answer these questions in the third essay by examining the determinants that affect the choices of born-globals (BGs) and born-again globals (BaGs) to expand worldwide. My study is based on pre-existent theories of diversification, and I place specific emphasis on the conceivable role of peer influence and the motivation or desire for growth. I further study the entrenchment, the idiosyncratic risk, and the innovation caliber hypothesis. My results document that innovation efficiency strongly enhances BG’s propensity to global diversify. On the other hand, peer pressure, CEO ownership and idiosyncratic risk level significantly influence BGs not to globalize. In contrast, BaGs are positively influenced by their industry peers, showing how competition works in the financial markets for youthful versus mature companies.

Tématem této práce je komparativní analýza burz střední Evropy, tzn. Burzy cenných papírů Praha, a.s.; Burzy cenných papierov Bratislava; Gieldy papierów wartościowych ve Varšavě; Budapesti Értéktözsde v Budapešti a Wiener Börse ve Vídni. Záměrem bylo ucelené srovnání jednotlivých trhů zejména z pohledu realizace IPO a likvidity jednotlivých burz. Teoretická část popisuje obchodní systém a systém vypořádání obchodů. Při analýze trhu IPO ve střední Evropě jsem se zaměřil hlavně na faktory rozvinutosti jednotlivých trhů IPO a počtu realizovaných IPO na jednotlivých trzích. Analýza likvidity na středoevropských burzách je rozdělena na likviditu akciových částí burz a dluhopisových částí burz. Na jednotlivých trzích byl analyzován podíl pěti nejlikvidnějších emisí na celkovém objemu obchodů. Práce by měla poskytnout obraz konkurenční pozice českého burzovnictví v porovnání se středoevropskou konkurencí.

By integrating signaling research with an institutional perspective we examine how country of origin, corporate governance, and host market effects impact foreign IPO performance. Using a sample of 202 foreign IPOs listed in the U.S. or U.K in 2002-2007 results indicate both the legal environment surrounding these organizations in their countries of origin and board independence impact the success of foreign firms at IPO. However, the institutional environment of the chosen IPO market impacts the salience of country and corporate governance signals for foreign IPO firms suggesting a more contextualized framework of IPO valuation is necessary.

This diploma thesis deals with the impact of venture capital financing on the performance of selected companies. In the theoretical portion of this paper, an analysis of foreign studies is performed. There are also several reasons discussed for government support and the impact of venture capital on the macroeconomic level. In the practical part of diploma thesis, the performance of Czech VC-backed firms is calculated. Then the impact of venture capital on Czech and foreign companies is commented on. In the following portion of this diploma thesis, multiple linear regression is made in order to discover which factors have the most significant impact on the performance of the selected Czech companies. In the closing segment, the results and findings are discussed as well as the recommendations for policy-makers that should be made.