The pricing of infrastructure initial public offerings : evidence from Australia

This paper explores first-day returns on infrastructure entity initial public offerings (IPOs) in Australia from 1996 to 2007. While a good deal has been written on the first-day returns of industrial and mining company IPOs and Real Estate Investment Trust IPOs, first-day returns of infrastructure entity IPOs have yet to be reported in the literature. The study uses ordinary least squares regression analysis to identify factors that might influence the percentage first-day returns theoretically available to investing subscribers and factors that might influence the aggregate amount of money left to subscribers by issuers. The study finds that first-day returns, on average, are not significantly different from zero. There is evidence, however, that suggests higher dividend yields and higher percentage direct costs of capital raising influence these first-day returns. The study also finds that infrastructure entity IPOs that seek to raise more equity capital leave less money on the table for subscribing investors.<br /

The Importance of Audit Committees in Initial Public Offerings

This paper follows Balvers, McDonald and Miller (1988) and Beatty (1989), who find lower underpricing in initial public offerings (IPOs) when prestigious auditors are used to attest to the IPO's financial statements. Australian IPOs are not obliged to nominate audit firms in the prospectus but often identify that they will have audit committees so as to assist in more appropriate corporate governance. This paper analyses if IPOs identifying the existence of audit committees in the prospectus have a lower underpricing return. While our findings are consistent with previous studies concluding that both the size of the new issue and the use of an underwriter are important ingredients in the level of underpricing return, the inclusion of an audit committee in the prospectuses has actually increased underpricing returns. The capital market may view the audit committee identification with some skepticism.

The global financial crisis and the centro properties group earnings revision and refinancing announcements : an event study

This study analyses the impact of the global financial crisis using Centro Properties Group\u27s earnings revision and refinancing announcements on December 17th 2007 as the event date to investigate the change in risk profile for A-REITs that were included in the S&amp;P/ASX 300. The study finds that nine of the 25 A-REIT constituents on the S&amp;P/ASX 300 recorded statistically significant negative abnormal returns on 17th December 2007 and that the systematic risk for many A-REITs moved significantly higher after this date. This increased systematic risk has major implications for the cost of capital to the sector.<br /

The costs of raising equity capital by Australian property trust initial public offerings

This paper reports some of the direct costs of raising equity capital by property trust initial public offerings (IPOs) in Australia from 1994 to 2004. It also documents the amount of underpricing by these IPOs. The results indicate the average fees paid to underwriters and/or stockbrokers in managing and marketing the issue was around 3.3% of the public equity capital raised. The average fees paid to legal firms, accounting firms and valuers for their professional involvement and expert reports were 0.4%, 0.2% and 0.1% respectively, totaling 0.7% of the equity raised. Other fees such as printing, listing fees, postage, distribution and advertising cost around 2.1%. The total average direct costs amounted to around 6.1% of the proceeds raised. The average underpricing by these property trust IPOs was 2.6%. This paper also investigates the hypotheses that the percentage direct capital raising costs are influenced by the size of the IPO and whether the IPO is underwritten. This study confirms that larger property trust equity capital raisings have lower percentage total direct cost;, however, it does not find that underwriting significantly influences the percentage of total direct costs for these property trust IPOs.<br /

Analysis of IPO dividend forecasts for Australian LPTs

While dividend forecasts in the prospectuses of initial public offerings (IPOs) are common, Brown et al. (2000) have found them to be optimistically biased. This study investigates the dividend/distribution forecasts in the prospectuses of Australian LPT IPOs during the period 1994 to 2004 and finds on average that they are not optimistically biased. Because dividends have important cash flow implications for investors, this study also examines factors that might influence the magnitude of the errors between the forecast and the actual distributions. It finds that LPT IPOs that offer stapled securities have overestimated their distribution paying ability.<br /

The underpricing of A-REIT IPOs in Australia during 2002 to 2008

This study analyses 45 Australian Real Estate Investment Trust (A-REIT) initial public offerings (IPOs) in Australia from January 2002 to June 2008, since the introduction of the single responsible entity to oversee the activities of listed property trusts (LPTs) Rather than the trustee and manager roles. The study finds that this sample of A-REIT IPOs had a significant 3.37% underpricing and that the direct costs of capital raising help explain this indirect cost of underpricing. There is some evidence to suggest that A-REIT IPOs that seek to raise more equity capital have less underpricing, while those that are subscribed to more quickly have higher underpricing. The findings offer insights for issuers who seek to maximize the value of the A-REIT at the time of the IPO, underwriters who guarantee the success of the capital raising and for investors who are looking to invest in Australian A-RE1T 1POs.<br /

Underpricing, Risk Management, Hot Issue and Crowding out Effects: Evidence from the Australian Resources Sector Initital Public Offerings

In this paper, we provide a comprehensive investigation of 260 initial public offerings (IPOs) in the Australian resource sector for the 1994 – 2004 period. Consistent with the existing IPO literature, we document a 16.13% underpricing return by firms in the sample. Despite the contention that risk management can reduce the uncertainty relating to the new issue and hence alleviates the extent of underpricing, we do not find any evidence in support of such contention. In addition to the conventional variables used to explain IPOs underpricing, we further provide evidence that the demand for resources IPOs is not ‘crowded-out’ by the strength of alternative IPO markets. We also show evidence that the issue price adjusts to both market return in preceding months and the average underpricing of resources IPOs in the 12 month period leading to the float which offers an explanation to the hot issue effect observed in the IPO market.initial public offerings, underpricing, risk management, crowding-out effect, hot issue market.

The gender composition of boards after an IPO

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyse the change in the gender composition of the boards of large Australian companies, after listing.Design/methodology/approach - This study investigates the gender composition of the boards of large Australian companies at the time of the initial public offering (IPO) and subsequently as these companies mature into established public companies. It also investigates industry influences and organizational size influences on the board composition at the time of the IPO and subsequently.Findings - No significant change is found in the proportion of male and female directors holding directorships at the time of the IPO and some five to eight years later when the company is recorded as a top 500 company (by market capitalization) on the Australian lists. This implies that the capital market is generally satisfied by the gender composition of boards from the time of the IPO.Originality/value - This paper extends on previous work which provides evidence of a relatively low proportion of female directors on the boards of Australian initial public offerings.<br /

Intangible assets and the underpricing of industrial company initial public offerings

This study analyses 262 industrial company initial public offerings (IPOs) in Australia from 1994 to 1999. It finds that the identification and valuation of brand name, trademark, patent and capitalized research and development cost intangible assets in the prospectus significantly reduces underpricing. The identification of goodwill and license cost intangibles does not appear to be significant to underpricing. This paper supports the Beatty and Ritter (1986) argument that IPOs may display financial and nonfinancial characteristics that lower the uncertainty about the value of the lPO and hence lower the underpricing of that IPO. Our findings suggest implications for the issuer who wants to maximize the value of the firm at the time of the lPO, the underwriter who is required to guarantee the success of the capital raising and for the initial investors who are looking to reduce their uncertainty about the valuation of the lPO.<br /

The gender composition of boards of property trust initial public offerings

This paper follows Dimovski and Brooks (2004) which identified a relatively low proportion of female directors on the boards of Australian mining and industrial company initial public offerings (IPOs). This study investigates the gender composition of the boards of directors of Australian property trust IPOs from 1994 to 1999. We find that property trust IPOs in Australia generally do not require female directors for the capital raising. We also find that larger IPOs tend to engage more women directors but that retail property trust IPOs tend to engage fewer women directors.<br /