An examination of underperformance and liquidity of initial public offerings by high growth stocks on the German Neuer Markt

Eckbo, Masulis, & Norli (2000) question previous examination of initial public offering (IPO) underperformance with the keen argument that the increase in the number of traded shares and the infusion of equity reduce two significant premia in the stock’s return, namely, liquidity risk and financial risk. The new market for high (expected) growth stock in Germany is examined for evidence of underpricing, underperformance, and liquidity improvements during the first two complete years of operation – 1998 and 1999. The initial trading period examines the offering day and also the first ten days of trading (for the investor who can not get allocation but enters the secondary market). The postissue performance study period is taken as the 5‐day period one‐year after the IPO. Using regression of four underpricing measures upon issuing firm characteristics deemed important from the extant literature, we seek to explain the degree of underpricing discovered. We find that substantial underpricing occurs and performance is high one year later, even adjusted for the German market return for the period or the firm‐specific sector performance for the same period. Trading dwindles for most stocks after the offering day. One year later, the trading of the stock is even lower. We do find that the more active the trading in the initial period, the greater the returns and trading one year after.