A success dressed as a failure? Evidence from post-IPO withdrawal outcomes in Europe

What happens to companies that file for an initial public offering (IPO), but withdraw and do not list? How long does the post-IPO outcome take? These questions are investigated by analysing market, firm and offer characteristics of 334 withdrawn IPOs in Europe between 2001 and 2015. The majority of withdrawn IPOs is engaged in M&amp;A, only few file for a second time IPO. These post-IPO withdrawal outcomes happen shortly after the IPO filing. Private equity and venture capital-backed firms are more frequently engaging in M&amp;A or trading. The evidence suggests that the IPO may be used as a marketing mechanism, being one of several alternatives of exit.</p

Future directions in international financial integration research. A crowdsourced perspective

This paper is the result of a crowdsourced effort to surface perspectives on the present and future direction of international finance. The authors are researchers in financial economics who attended the INFINITI 2017 conference in the University of Valencia in June 2017 and who participated in the crowdsourcing via the Overleaf platform. This paper highlights the actual state of scientific knowledge in a multitude of fields in finance and proposes different directions for future research

Determinants, Outcomes and Predictions in 21st Century Western Europe

This doctoral thesis offers insights into the determinants, outcomes and predictions of IPO withdrawal in 21st-century Western Europe by focusing on three distinct investigations. These investigations are motivated by a comprehensive literature review and underpinned by an overview of the European IPO setting. An integrative database is created on completed and withdrawn IPO filings from 2001 to 2017 in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. Regulatory, economic and market conditions as well as offer, firm and corporate governance characteristics are explored. The first investigation establishes the IPO withdrawal as a common feature of the main markets in Europe. Most companies that withdraw blame unfavourable market conditions; however, IPO offer and corporate governance characteristics emerge to be the main drivers of IPO withdrawal. A pronounced alignment of the determinants of IPO withdrawal is revealed under the lens of European equity market integration. The second investigation focuses on the determinants and timing of the different post-IPO withdrawal outcomes: private, inactive, M&A and trading. It is suggested that the IPO is one of several alternatives in which private equity and venture capital pursue a dual-track strategy. Better corporate governance at the time of the IPO filing reduces the probability of a negative post-withdrawal outcome. Little evidence on second time IPOs disregards the market timing arguments. The third investigation suggests that IPO withdrawal can be predicted and is not random. It is demonstrated that there are common determinants of IPO withdrawal shared by all European IPOs, regardless of the particular stock exchange or country of domicile. Superior post-IPO withdrawal outcomes exhibit a higher predicted IPO withdrawal probability which implies a dual-track strategy. Finally, the three investigations in this thesis provide compelling results to answer the set of specific research questions. Additional and potential inquiries are identified for future research throughout the thesis

Determinants of IPO Withdrawals. An Empirical Analysis of Germany

Stock markets represent a way for companies to access funds. To be able to make what is called an initial public offer (IPO) , which is the term for when a company first accesses this market, a variety of legal and financial requirements need to be met. Often there is uncertainty about what investors are willing to pay for a stock of the company, hence IPOs are underpriced. This under pricing is costly for the company and can cause the firm to withdraw its initial public offer at any stage . In Germany from 2001 until 2015 , a bout 14 % of the companies filing to go public withdraw. There is surprisingl y little research on this area. Employing binary as well as multinomial probit regressions, t his analysis focuses on the determinants of withdrawals in the German IPO market. Considering a multitude of academic papers about initial public offerings, we select market and firm characteris tics and compute the respective effects on the probability to withdraw. Our work provides new insights into the German IPO market and the probability to withdraw. This analysis demonstrates that results on the US - American IPO market cannot be adapted to th e German one without further proof. In contrast to the US - American market, withdrawn IPOs show higher levels of venture capital backing and of underwriter reputation. In the bank - dominated German market, the characteristics of both substantially differ fro m the US - American counterparts. Also, multinational companies are more likely to withdraw due to having a higher level of alternative sources of funding outside of Germany. We discovery that negative news prior to an IPO as well as the intent to retire deb t increase the probability of withdrawal