We study rights offerings using a sample of 8,238 rights offers announced during 1995-2008 in 69 countries. Although shareholders prefer having the option to trade rights, issuers deliberately restrict tradability in 38% of the offerings. We argue that firms restrict rights trading to avoid the...

While the signalling hypothesis has played a prominent role as the economic rationale associated with the initial public offering (IPO) underpricing puzzle (Welch, 1989), the empirical evidence on it has been mixed at best (Jegadeesh, Weinstein and Welch, 1993; Michaely and Shaw, 1994). This paper...

We study the choice and valuation effects of alternative flotation methods using a sample of Chinese firms that must meet the return on equity (ROE) thresholds set by the government to raise equity capital. The ROE requirement, although changed over time, seems to play an important role on the...

Die Arbeit untersucht den Ankündigungseffekt und die Outperformance von Schweizer Unternehmen, die zwischen 1992 und 2003 eine Nennwertrückzahlung ausgeschüttet haben und stellt die erste empirische Untersuchung von Nennwertrückzahlungen dar. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass die...

We analyze a comprehensive sample of more than 10,000 U.S. stocks in the OTC market. As little is known about this market, we first characterize OTC firms by trading venue and provide evidence on survival, success, frequency of venue changes, reporting status, and trading activity. A large...

Our study examines the existence and the nature of private benefits of control in Germany. We do this by analyzing initial public offerings of founding-family owned firms and tracking their fate up to ten years following the IPO. Our sample includes a uniquely rich data set of 105 IPOs of...

Because IPO mechanisms determine both the initial trading price and the allocation of newly-listed firms' shares, they have financial and strategic consequences for shareholders. For that reason, it is of interest to analyse the relative advantages and disadvantages of the different procedures...

Based on a sample of 15 European countries, this survey analyses various features of the European IPO (Initial Public Offering) market over the period from 1995 to 2004: listing requirements, IPO-mechanism choices, performance and secondary market liquidity. First, the comparison of national...

We investigate the link between employee ownership and price levels of stocks. Using a comprehensive sample of firms in the Société des Bourses Françaises (SBF) 120 Index from 2000 to 2007, we document a negative correlation between share price levels and employee ownership. This suggests...

Overwhelming evidence indicates that firms time market conditions to issue equity. I investigate the motivations for security issuances in hot and cold markets. While it is commonly believed that firms tend to exploit overvaluations to issue equity and overinvest in so-called 'hot' markets,...