In this study we examine how Specified Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) were used as a financing tool for companies in the shipping industry in period 2004-2011. We confirm that SPACs focused on acquisitions in the shipping industry have similar characteristics as the population of SPACs...

This paper studies how institutional characteristics of Specified Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) are related to their post-merger survival. SPACs are unique financial firms that conduct the IPO with the solely purpose to use the proceeds to acquire another private company. Paper finds...

Prior studies suggest that companies which go public manage earnings in order to inflate the issue price. However, for PE funds the use of such activity can be costly in terms of the reputation capital as they are repetitive stock market players. The main aim of the study is to empirically...

In this study we examine how Specified Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) were used as a financing tool for companies in the shipping industry in period 2004-2011. We confirm that SPACs focused on acquisitions in the shipping industry have similar characteristics as the population of SPACs...

This study analyses the role of private equity backing in initial public offerings (IPOs) using a dataset of 227 companies that went public on the Milan Stock Exchange between January 1995 and December 2007. The evidence rejects the certification and monitoring hypotheses and provides...

This study analyses the role of private equity investors in solving asymmetric information problems and the relationship to underpricing, wealth loss for pre-existing shareholders and the cost of going public. According to certification theory, companies backed by private equity investors are...

Country-level institutional quality is positively correlated with the underpricing of initial public offerings (IPOs). The association is strong for IPOs issued in developed markets, but nearly absent for emerging market IPOs. We hypothesize that extra-legal institutions, including financial...

Using a hand-collected data set of private firm acquisitions and IPOs, this paper develops the first empirical analysis in the literature of the "IPO valuation premium puzzle," which refers to a situation where many private firms choose to be acquired rather than to go public at higher...

Are private equity investors able to reduce the overall costs of going public? This hypothesis was tested, for the Italian market, on a sample of 155 Ipos (54 Vb and 101 Nvb) during the period 1999-2007. For each company we estimated the direct and indirect costs of listing. The main results are...