This thesis is an empirical event study that examines the short-run performance of initial public offerings (IPO), known as underpricing and initial return. I argue that literature which only presents equal weights could potentially give the reader a skewed understanding of the width of the concept. By using a new data set of Nordic IPOs during the period 2009-2018, I provide estimates using equal as well as market capitalization weights consistently to give a more nuanced and fair picture. The equally weighted first-day initial return is estimated to be 4.96% and the value weighted first-day initial return is estimated to be 5.32% during the examined time period. Further, the initial return is examined in relation to firm characteristics as well as quarterly index returns and issuance volume. No statistically significant characteristics that can identify additional levels of underpricing was found. Quarterly average initial returns and quarterly index returns are independent of each other. In line with previous literature the positive relationship of issuance volume and initial return is valid on a quarterly level, indicating that firms tend to go public in times of positive and higher initial returns to a greater extent.

När aktier noteras, i.e. för första gången tas upp för publik handel, är stängningskursen ofta högre än den värdering aktien åsatts innan noteringen. Detta innebär att IPOs genererar en "första-dags-avkastning" som systematiskt överstiger marknadens genomsnittliga dagsavkastning; fenomenet kallas underprissättning.  Denna studie syftar till att undersöka om underprissättning förekommer på den moderna svenska IPO-marknaden och på vilket sätt bolag inom branscherna health care och technology (HCT-bolag) skiljer sig från icke-HCT-bolag (IHCT) i detta hänseende. Studien operationaliseras huvudsakligen med regressionsanalyser med vilka sambanden mellan bolagsspecifika variabler och underprissättningen utvärderas. Empirin utgörs av IPOs mellan åren 2016 och 2018. Resultaten tyder på att HCT-bolag under urvalsperiden – som aritmetiskt medelvärde – har underprissatts i högre utsträckning än andra bolag. Vidare är också spridningen av HCT- bolagens underprissättning större än ditot för andra bolag. Sambandsanalyserna tyder på att vinstgenererande IHCT-bolag underprissatts i högre utsträckning än förlustgenererande IHCT- bolag. För HCT-bolag föreligger däremot inget sådant samband. / When stocks are listed, i.e. becomes subject to public trading, the closing price is generally higher than the initial offering price. Hence, IPOs yields a ”first day return” which systematically exceeds the average daily return on the stock market; this phenomenon is called underpricing. This study aims to examine if the modern Swedish IPO-market is subject to underpricing and how health care and technology (HCT) companies differ from non-HCT-companies (IHCT) in this regard. The study is primarily operationalized with regression analysis through which the correlation between company-specific variables and underpricing is examined. The data consists of IPOs between 2016 and 2018. The results indicate that HCT-companies during the sample period – as an arithmetic mean – have been underpriced to a larger extent than non-HCT-companies. Moreover, the variance of the underpricing is also higher for HCT-companies than for IHCT-companies. The analysis also indicate that profitable IHCT-companies is underpriced to a larger extent than non- profitable IHCT-companies. However, such a correlation does not exist for HCT-companies.

This thesis investigates three topics in empirical corporate finance. In the first essay, the focus is on the role of financial constraints in the market for corporate control. In the second and third essays, we explore the effect of personal connections at board and executive levels on corporate credit rating and initial public offering (IPO) underpricing respectively. In the first essay, using a large sample of US acquisitions made between 1985 and 2013, we study the effect of financial constraints on acquisition gains and acquisition likelihood. Our findings show that financial constraints of target companies significantly increase acquisition premiums and abnormal returns for both parties. Our results further show that the presence of financial constraints in the target is one of the most important determinants of a takeover bid. This supports the idea that acquisitions may improve the ability of financially constrained companies to access capital through a better reallocation of resources within segments of the same company (e.g., internal capital market) or through better access to external markets. This would eventually benefit bidders too, as new capital would be invested in valuable growth opportunities that otherwise would expire unexercised. In the second essay, using a large sample of US public debt issues we show that personal connections between directors of issuing companies and rating agencies result in higher credit ratings. We estimate the average effect to be about one notch. The results are robust to several alternative tests including additional controls for managerial traits, placebo tests and propensity score matching. Moreover, our tests on default rates and bond yields do not appear to reflect a favourable treatment by the rating agency. Rather, they suggest that personal connections act as a mechanism to reduce asymmetric information between the rating agency and the issuer. In the final essay, using a large sample of IPOs in the U.S. we show that interpersonal connections between directors and top executives in issuers and underwriting banks result in significantly lower levels of IPO underpricing. We also examine the issuers' long-term stock returns following their IPOs. Our results indicate that the connected companies' long-term returns are not significantly different from the non-connected companies. This suggests that underwriters set lower levels of underpricing for the connected companies not to treat them favourably, but due to better flow of and stronger reliance on soft information and lower risk exposure.

<p>The concept of grandstanding comes from Gompers (1996), in his article, he defined “to grandstand” as “to act or conduct oneself with a view to impressing onlookers”. The idea of grandstanding does not only apply solely to venture capital but also could apply to underwriters of IPOs industry as well.</p><p>IPOs activities provide huge revenues for underwriters, so underwriters compete with each other for IPO business. China’s stock market grows explosively after 2006, and it has the highest underpricing, as well as more and more underwriters have emerged recently, so our paper is constrained under Chinese stock market environment. We empirically examine whether inexperienced underwriters grandstand when they conduct IPOs in order to achieve more market shares, for example by deliberate underpricing or charging lower fee rates.</p><p>This study is conducted from the underwriter’s perspective. We use two kinds of reputation measurement methods to define “inexperienced” and “prestigious underwriters” and employ a quantitative approach to analyze the data. Evidence from a sample of 392 IPOs from June 19, 2006 to March 24, 2010 suggests that inexperienced underwriters do not have incentives to grandstand. The number of IPOs that underwriters have conducted and recent IPO performance do not always contribute to a gain of market share directly. Therefore, inexperienced underwriters do not provide more underpriced IPOs nor do they charge lower fee rates. Evidence also marginally supports that underwriters do not intend to conduct small offer sized IPOs.</p>

The concept of grandstanding comes from Gompers (1996), in his article, he defined “to grandstand” as “to act or conduct oneself with a view to impressing onlookers”. The idea of grandstanding does not only apply solely to venture capital but also could apply to underwriters of IPOs industry as well. IPOs activities provide huge revenues for underwriters, so underwriters compete with each other for IPO business. China’s stock market grows explosively after 2006, and it has the highest underpricing, as well as more and more underwriters have emerged recently, so our paper is constrained under Chinese stock market environment. We empirically examine whether inexperienced underwriters grandstand when they conduct IPOs in order to achieve more market shares, for example by deliberate underpricing or charging lower fee rates. This study is conducted from the underwriter’s perspective. We use two kinds of reputation measurement methods to define “inexperienced” and “prestigious underwriters” and employ a quantitative approach to analyze the data. Evidence from a sample of 392 IPOs from June 19, 2006 to March 24, 2010 suggests that inexperienced underwriters do not have incentives to grandstand. The number of IPOs that underwriters have conducted and recent IPO performance do not always contribute to a gain of market share directly. Therefore, inexperienced underwriters do not provide more underpriced IPOs nor do they charge lower fee rates. Evidence also marginally supports that underwriters do not intend to conduct small offer sized IPOs.

Bakgrund/Motiv: Historiskt sett tillämpades vanligen fast prissättning vid börsintroduktioner vilket innebar att aktierna ofta blev underprissatta och det var lätt för investerare att generera hög avkastning första handelsdagen. Numera används i större utsträckning anbudsförfarande och intervallprissättning där investerare lämnar anbud om pris och antal vilket har minskat underprissättningen. Studien utgår från att en del av marknadens förväntningar inkluderas i priset vid intervallprissättning vilket i sin tur skulle minska aktiens volatilitet efter introduktion. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om aktiens volatilitet skiljer sig efter att den introducerats beroende på vilken av de två metoderna som använts för att prissätta aktien samt hur val av prissättningsmetod påverkar en aktiens underprissättning och avkastning efter introduktionen. Genomförande: Studien består av kvantitativa historiska data i form av aktiekurser och övrig information från de prospekt som upprättats i samband med bolagens introduktion på börsen. Utöver bearbetning av data och analyser i Excel har ett flertal ekonometriska tester genomförts med hjälp av ickelinjära regressionsanalyser där prissättningsmetod, betavärde, underprissättning och varians testats som beroende variabel mot ett flertal kombinationer av förklarande variabler. Slutsats: Studien visar att bolag som tillämpat fast prissättning uppvisar högre volatilitet efter börsintroduktion och att valet av prissättningsmetod därmed har en viss påverkan på volatiliteten. Vidare kan det konstateras att dessa bolag generellt varit mer underprissatta och genererat högre avkastning det första handelsåret. / Background: In the past, most companies performing an Initial Public Offering, IPO, applied the fixed pricing method, which often lead to an extensive underpricing of the shares. By doing so, it was easy for investors to gain high return on the first trading day. Nowadays, companies use auction pricing to a greater extent where investors bid for a certain amount of shares to a certain price. This procedure has resulted in a decrease of the underpricing. With the assumption that some of the market’s expectations are included in the price, whilst using an auction pricing method, these stocks would possibly appear less volatile after the IPO. Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate whether the volatility of the shares is different after the introduction on the market, based on which method that has been applied when pricing the shares. The thesis also investigates to what extent the choice of pricing method influences the underpricing and returns of a share after its introduction. Method: The study comprises quantitative historical data, such as share prices as well as additional information gathered from the prospectus of each IPO. In addition to arranging the data and the analyses, made in Excel, numerous econometric analyses have been made by using non-linear regressions, where variables such as pricing method, beta, underpricing on the first trading day, and variance have been examined as a dependent variable in relation to several different combinations of explanatory variables. Findings: The study finds that companies that have practiced a fixed pricing method show a higher volatility after the introduction on the market. Thus, the choice of either pricing method has some influence on the volatility. Furthermore, it was proved that companies using a fixed pricing method were more underpriced and gained higher returns during the first year of trading compared to companies using an auction pricing method.

Prior studies show the evidence of non-financial variables such as marketing affects investor¡¦s response to risky asset pricing, and indicate that the distribution of risky asset returns is asymmetric and non-nomality, implying using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method with the assumption of normal distributions may lead to unreliable estimates. This study tries to apply quantile regression to the analysis of the sample in order to avoid estimation bias. This study examines whether a firm¡¦s pre-IPO marketing expenditures affects its¡¦ initial public offering (IPO) underpricing in Japan and examine whether market states influence the existing relation between pre-IPO marketing expenditures and IPO underpricing. The empirical results shows: (1) pre-IPO marketing expenditures significantly reduce IPO underpricing levels, (2) pre-IPO marketing expenditures can reduce IPO underpricing levels following bear markets as it cannot reduce IPO underpricing levels following bull markets. Therefore, as firms decide to use marketing strategies to make their firm remarkable, and in turns without concerning for market states to reduce the degree of IPO underpricing, their objective may not be reached.

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Underwriter need to participate in the process of new issue firms going public. Related reference about Taiwan's underwriter IPOs market share haven't appear. In this study, we expect to find out the relationship between Taiwan's underwriter IPOs market share and some related factors. Then offer issuer, underwriter and investor the conclusion as reference. The IPOs samples are selected during the period 1991 through 2000 in Taiwan. There are 475 newly issued firms in this period. We subtract some incomplete data samples and bank samples.There are 247 IPOs samples in our regression model. Although underwriter IPOs market share is less significantly impacted by IPOs offer price , results imply that when offer price is too low,this would damage issuer's benefit and lead to underwriter IPOs market share decrease. When offer price is too high, this would damage investor's benefit and just lightly lead to underwriter IPOs market share decrease. Results show that there is no industry specialization in Taiwan's underwriter industry. Although underwriter IPOs market share is less significantly impacted by IPOs one year performance,results imply that when underwriter market higher one year return IPOs, this would attract more investors and lead to underwriter IPOs market share increase.Results show that underwriter IPOs market share is significantly impacted by nderwriter's asset and age. The underwriter with larger asset and larger age gains more IPOs market share.

Abstract This study aims to show how the company management reasons when it comes to underpricing IPO´s. In the market climate of today more and more companies are listed on the stock exchange and the business press is constantly reporting about highly increasing stock values. This validates the current interest of the subject and the importance of finding the underlying reasons of the decisions made. Interviews have been conducted with three newly listed companies, who all had a high initial price increase, and with their underwriters. Thanks to the underwriters we have been able to triangulate the empirical data provided by the companies. Therefore we could also put the motives and reasoning’s of the company management into words. What the study has shown is that founders have the ambition to develop the company further, rather than to conduct the IPO in order to cash out from the business as suggested in the theories. The choices they make in the form of lock up agreements, pre-IPO call options and rights offerings will signal long-term commitment and market interest regarding the company. This can build an amount of trust towards the investors and the demand for risk compensation in the shape of underpricing will be lowered. Committed investors will establish consensus in the market and others will follow in their footsteps, creating an information cascade. As a consequence, IPOs rarely are moderately subscribed but rather very over- or undersubscribed. Small price changes can therefore make the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful IPO. Because of this, the company is forced to underprice in order to create more attractive circumstances even though the market climate is good. / Sammanfattning Studiens mål är att belysa hur företagsledningar strategiskt resonerar om underprissättning vid börsintroduktion. I rådande marknadsklimat noteras fler och fler bolag där branschpress ständigt rapporterar om kraftigt stigande initiala aktiekurser. Detta gör ämnet aktuellt och intressant att undersöka bakomliggande faktorer kring. Intervjuer har gjorts med tre nyligen börsintroducerade bolag som haft en kraftig initial kursstigning, samt deras finansiella rådgivare. Tack vare den finansiella rådgivaren har vi kunnat triangulera empirin från bolagen och därmed kunnat sätta ord på bakomliggande resonemang och motiv till underprissättningen. Det studien visat är att företagsledningen har ambitionen att driva bolaget vidare mot tillväxt snarare än att sälja ut till marknaden för snabb avkastnings skull, vilket hävdats i teorier. Besluten dessa fattar i form av lock up-avtal, teckningsoptioner och teckningsförbindelser kommer leda till signaler om långsiktighet och intresse kring bolaget. På så vis kan ett förtroendekapital byggas mot investerarna och kompensationskrav i form av underprissättning minskar från dessa. Engagerade investerare kommer skapa konsensus på marknaden och övriga kommer följa i deras steg vilket skapar en informationskaskad. På grund av detta blir sällan börsintroduktioner medeltecknade utan snarare mycket över- eller undertecknade. Marginella prisändringar kan därför göra skillnaden mellan en lyckad och misslyckad börsintroduktion. Detta gör att bolaget tvingas skapa mer attraktiva förhållanden för investerarna genom underprissättning trots ett gynnsamt börsklimat.