Impact of news sentiment and topics on IPO underpricing: US evidence

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Fedorova ◽  
Sergei Druchok ◽  
Pavel Drogovoz

Purpose The goal of the study is to examine the effects of news sentiment and topics dominating in the news field prior to the initial public offering (IPO) on the IPO underpricing. Design/methodology/approach The authors’ approach has several steps. The first is textual analysis. To detect the dominating topics in the news, the authors use Latent Dirichlet allocation. The authors use bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT) pretrained on financial news corpus to evaluate the tonality of articles. The second is evaluation of feature importance. To this end, a linear regression with robust estimators and Classification and Regression Tree and Random Forest are used. The third is data. The text data consists of 345,731 news articles from Thomson Reuters related to the USA in the date range from 1 January 2011 to 31 May 2018. The data contains all the possible topics from the website, excluding anything related to sports. The sample of 386 initial public offerings completed in the USA from 1 January 2011 to 31 May 2018 was collected from Bloomberg Database. Findings The authors found that sentiment of the media regarding the companies going public influences IPO underpricing. Some topics, namely, the climate change and environmental policies and the trade war between the US and China, have influence on IPO underpricing if they appear in the media prior to the IPO day. Originality/value The puzzle of IPO underpricing is studied from the point of Narrative Economics theory for the first time. While most of the works cover only some specific news segment, we use Thomson Reuters news aggregator, which uses such sources The New York Post, CNN, Fox, Atlantic, The Washington Post ? Buzzfeed. To evaluate the sentiment of the articles, a state-of-the-art approach BERT is used. The hypothesis that some common narratives or topics in the public discussion may impose influence on such example of biased behaviour like IPO underpricing has also found confirmation.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vikas Gupta ◽  
Shveta Singh ◽  
Surendra S. Yadav

Purpose In initial public offerings (IPOs), the media plays a pivotal role by disseminating the information to the investors who generally lack the expertise to understand the information through the prospectus. Thus, media coverage can impact the investment decision of the investors and the IPO performance. Media typically covers the IPO before listing, suggesting that it may play an important role in explaining the opening price rather than the closing price on the day of listing. Therefore, this study aims to disaggregate the traditional IPO underpricing into three categories: voluntary, pre-market and post-market and provides a comparative analysis of the media sentiments impact on the traditional and disaggregated IPO underpricing. The authors’ disaggregated IPO underpricing analysis will facilitate the investors in making an effective investment strategy based on media sentiments. Design/methodology/approach The study deploys sentiment analysis using bags of n (2) grams approach to gauge the sentiments on 2,891 media articles and uses “robust-regression” technique to analyze them on a sample of 222 Indian IPOs during 2009–2018. Findings The study reports that the sentiment score is positively related to the traditional underpricing; the sentiment score is positively associated with the pre-market underpricing and does not have any significant relationship with the post-market underpricing; the number of media articles does not play a significant role in explaining the IPO underpricing. The findings highlight the presence of a semi-strong form of efficiency in the Indian IPO market. Originality/value Existing literature focuses that the role of media on IPO performance is based on the developed countries. IPO laws differ based on the countries. For instance, in India, investors can check the demand by the other categories of investors on a real-time basis. Thus, it is interesting to study whether, with such a high level of transparency, media can explain IPO performance in the Indian market. Media generally covers IPO before listing; therefore, the present study disaggregates the IPO underpricing to evaluate the role of media on the primary and secondary market separately. It will help the investors to decide when to enter and exit the market.


Kybernetes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (12) ◽  
pp. 2849-2871
Author(s):  
Fei Zhang ◽  
Xiao-Hua Zhou ◽  
Jiafu Su ◽  
Sang-Bing Tsai ◽  
Yu-Ming Zhai

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how signals of uncertainty in the media affect retail investor decisions and initial public offering (IPO) underpricing through theoretical and empirical methods. Design/methodology/approach The authors construct a theoretical model of the influence of media signals on IPO pricing, which describes the micro process in which uncertain signals in media influence retail investors’ decisions and IPO underpricing. Besides, the authors take 516 small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) listed in A-share from July 2009 to December 2012 as samples for empirical tests and establish an in-depth learning model for text analysis with Java programming to measure Chinese media tone. Finally, the results of the model analysis are verified by empirical results. Findings The results show that authoritative media with high credibility can reduce the uncertainty of information sources attract more investors’ attention and improve the valuation and demand of retail investors. The higher the media credibility is the higher the IPO underpricing rate is. The uncertain tone of the media will increase the decision-making cost of investors reduce the valuation expectation and demand of the secondary market and lead to a lower IPO underpricing rate. Originality/value The authors study the influence of the uncertainty of media source and media content on the degree of IPO underpricing of SMEs. This is a useful supplement to the Chinese media tone research system that is still in the exploration stage. The research has reference value for government regulation and investor decision-making.


2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianxiang Xu ◽  
Yujie Zhao

Initial public offerings, as one of the most important activities for firms, have raising massive amount of researches. Regarding China, the stock markets are experiencing a massive level of IPO underpricing, which leads to trillions of dollars leaved on the table. This study is conducted for the question why Chinese IPO are so heavily underpriced and the determinants of IPO underpricing, also the possibility of IPO be underpriced in China. We confirm again that Chinese IPOs are heavily underpriced and the average underpricing level is about 110%. Further, Chinese IPO will experience a negative short term return starting from 10 days after listing, and there are significantly different characteristics for state owned IPOs and private IPOs. This study finds that information asymmetry, proportion of state owned share and risk are the mainly determinants of IPO underpricing in China. Additionally, one of the biggest reason that Chinese initial public offering is underpriced so much is because of government participation, since we find that firms with larger proportion of government state owned shares will be more underpriced.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ho Wook Shin ◽  
Seung-Hyun (Sean) Lee ◽  
Min-Jung Lee

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how the liability of foreignness (LOF), choice of incorporation and an institutional change independently and jointly affect a reverse merger (RM) firm’s capital-raising performance. Design/methodology/approach The study draws on the data of shell reverse merger transactions in the USA from 2007 to 2016. Findings This paper finds that LOF and the choice of incorporation as a signal have a significant effect on RM firms’ capital-raising performance. In addition, this study finds that the effectiveness of the signaling can be affected by LOF. Finally, this paper finds that an institutional change that lowers the entry barrier to the initial public offering (which is a superior alternate to an RM) affects the impacts of LOF and signaling on RM firms’ capital-raising performance. Originality/value The study contributes to the international business literature by examining the RM (which has been an under-researched topic in the literature) by drawing on the LOF framework. The study finds that LOF and the choice of state for incorporation affect RM firms’ capital-raising performance; moreover, these relationships are affected by an institutional change.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-170
Author(s):  
Amanpreet Kaur ◽  
Balwinder Singh

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between corporate reputation and initial public offering (IPO) underpricing for a sample of 269 IPOs hitting the Indian capital market for the first time during the period ranging from April 1, 2007 to November 8, 2016.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on secondary data (of 269 Indian companies going public) obtained from websites of capital market, Chittorgarh and Securities and Exchange Board of India (from where prospectus of each company was downloaded individually to extract data on financial variables). The study devises the technique of multivariate regression analysis to arrive at the results.FindingsThe results of the study reveal that corporate reputation serves as a signal to naive investors that assures them of issuer company’s credibility, resulting in lower underpricing. In addition to it, the study also observes the level of gender diversity on Indian boards. It is disappointing to notice low level of female representation on Indian boards and the improvement if any made in the number of female directors on Indian boards is due to provisions of new companies’ act, 2013 that mandates at least one women director on the board of every listed company. Thus, females do not constitute a critical mass on Indian boards.Research limitations/implicationsThe current study scrutinizes the impact of corporate reputation on IPO underpricing only. Furthermore, the study analyzes the underpricing of only book built IPOs. Incorporating both book built and fixed price IPOs could have provided better insights into the issue.Practical implicationsThe study outlines significant implications for managers of issuer company to portray company’s own reputation as a signal instead of showcasing borrowed reputation of external agents at the crucial juncture of going public.Originality/valueMany signals portraying quality of the offering are sent by issuer company in public arena to make IPO launch a successful event. Among many such signals like underwriting reputation, auditor reputation, director’s and CEO’s reputation, the corporate audience has started giving more impetus to issuer company’s own reputation. Thus, financial academia witnessed a paradigm shift from external agents reputation to internal agent’s reputation and now the loci of interest has shifted to company’s own reputation. Giving emphasis to corporate reputation seems more relevant in emerging economies like India where naive investors rely on their own judgments while making investment decision who take clue from various signals to infer quality of the offer. It is momentous to observe whether reputation of the company acts as a conspicuous signal to decipher IPO quality. Furthermore, there hardly exists any empirical research directly examining the impact of corporate reputation on IPO underpricing in the Indian context. Hence, the present study is a modest attempt to fill this gap in literature.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kanis Saengchote ◽  
Chittisa Charoenpanich

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to investigate the relationship between cash flow uncertainty and the underpricing of real estate investment trust (REIT) initial public offerings (IPOs) using hand-collected data on income guarantee in Thailand from January 2005 to December 2019.Design/methodology/approachThis article uses linear regression to determine the relationship between underpricing (initial return) and proxy for cash flow uncertainty (income guarantee), controlling for other factors. Because issuers can use several actions to signal their quality under asymmetric information, the joint decisions are analyzed as simultaneous equations and estimated using three-stage least square (3SLS) to address potential endogeneity concern.FindingsThis article finds that underpricing, on average, is negatively related to income guarantee, which is a proxy for ex ante cash flow uncertainty. The relationship is economically and statistically significant and robust to simultaneous equations estimation. Further investigation shows that REITs with income guarantee tend to have lower systematic risk (measured by CAPM beta) and returns, making the nature of some REITs more debt-like than equity-like.Practical implicationsFor issuers, the result suggests that offering income guarantee (which is more costly for assets with lower quality) can be a useful signal of asset quality to investors and reduce IPO discount. For institutional and retail investors, the results are informative about the risk-return tradeoffs in REIT IPO investment opportunities. Income guarantees makes REIT exposure more fix income-like, so there is a need to consider the credibility of the guarantor as well.Originality/valueThis article is the first to use income guarantee as an ex ante measure of cash flow uncertainty and explicitly investigates its linkage to IPO underpricing. This aspect of uncertainty and IPO underpricing remains little-studied in the academic literature. It also contributes to the growing literature of REIT IPOs in Asia.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 160-179
Author(s):  
Kulabutr Komenkul ◽  
Mohamed Sherif ◽  
Bing Xu

This study examines if the prospectus disclosure of the motives for an initial public offering (IPO) explains the long-run performance of equity issuers using hand-collected data for 245 IPOs from the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), and also the Market for Alternative Investments (MAI), in the 12-year period between 2001 and 2012. The stock returns of the IPOs were investigated using cumulative abnormal return (CAR) and buy-and-hold abnormal return (BHAR). The authors find a significant impact for the level of use-of-proceeds disclosure on IPO underpricing, and further that the ex-ante uncertainty and signalling hypotheses explain the IPO underpricing phenomenon in the Thai IPO market. Furthermore, Thai firms citing investment needs show significant positive abnormal returns after the offering, but issuers that state general corporate purposes and debt payments motives underperform. The authors provide evidence that the offering size and bull-market conditions significantly affect the IPO pricing and the strategic disclosure of information in the prospectus. Our results are robust, having been subjected to a wide range of sensitivity checks. Keywords: Prospectus disclosure, IPO performance, Thailand. JEL Classification: G14, G30, G32


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuxin Wang ◽  
Guanying Wang

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how the price limit policy implemented in 2014 affects initial public offering (IPO) underpricing and long-term performance in China.Design/methodology/approachThe data are the IPOs from Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) and Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) between 2004 and 2018. The data are firstly divided into the IPOs before the price limit policy and the IPOs after the price limit policy according to the time of issuance. Then the two groups are divided into 4 subsamples according to the market blocks and the P/E ratio. The authors use multiple regression models to explore the effect of price limit policy in each subsample.FindingsThe first-day price limit system for IPOs is similar to the upward fuse mechanism, the purpose of which is to suppress IPO underpricing. However, this study finds that the policy does not suppress IPO underpricing, but increases the underpricing rate in all subsamples. Besides, the long-term performance in each subsample is different from each other. Main Board stocks’ long-term performance is worse after the policy. The policy makes Small and Medium Enterprise Board (SME Board) and Growth Enterprise Market Board (GEM Board) stocks with high P/E ratios perform better in the long term. For SME Board and GEM Board stocks with low P/E ratios, the policy makes no significant effect.Practical implicationsGood policy intentions may sometimes lead to counterproductive effects. However, since the long-term performance of each subsample is different, it is difficult to judge whether the policy should continue to be implemented or cancelled. Implementing different policies for different subsamples may be a better way to solve this problem.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the study of IPO underpricing and long-term performance from the perspective of price limit policy.


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 264-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill Dimovski ◽  
Christopher Ratcliffe ◽  
Monica Keneley

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the underpricing of real estate investment trust (REIT) initial public offerings (IPOs) from January 2010 to June 2015, as the sector recovered from the global financial crisis. Design/methodology/approach This study analyses the first day returns of US REIT IPOs in the post financial crisis period. The study then employs regression analysis to examine the factors that influence IPO underpricing. Findings The study observes that underpricing, on average, is not significantly different to zero. Furthermore, the REIT IPOs examined display underperformance in the longer term. In contrast to the earlier data samples of Chen and Lu (2006), the authors do not find that underwriting costs are a direct substitute for the indirect cost of underpricing, instead the authors find that higher underwriting costs are associated with higher underpricing. Also in contrast to the mainstream underpricing literature, the data suggest larger capital raisings require higher underpricing. The authors also find that newly listed REITs provided significant excess dividend returns over the post-listing period. Practical implications For institutional and retail investors, the results will help to further inform investment opportunities in REIT IPOs. Originality/value This paper adds to the ongoing academic debate of the lack of underpricing in REIT IPOs relative to industrial companies. Research has shown periods of underpricing are often replaced with periods of overpricing suggesting that the pattern of behavior in REIT markets is substantially different.


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elio Pérez Calle

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to analyse the current status of the Chinese research and development (R&D) system in a global environment, compared to those of other nations. Design/methodology/approach – Extracting meaningful information from organisation for economic co-operation and development (OECD) (research intensity), Thomson Reuters (research output), UNESCO and cross-border education research team (C-BERT) (mobility) databases and analysing de facto international standards such as university rankings, the Chinese system is compared to those of other scientific powers (the world top expenders in R&D such as the USA, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and some European nations), both using absolute production values and those relative to the productivity of the R&D workforce, so a general view of such a system is offered to complement previous analyses. Findings – A rather utilitarian approach to R&D policy, linked to economic growth, with a strong role of a Government-backed industry and based on applied R&D rather than on basic science, is found. The emergence of China as a scientific power relies heavily on a small number of institutions and efficiency becomes the priority, as confirmed by the growing presence of Chinese universities in university rankings – which is linked to some internationalisation efforts – and by the quantitative analysis of science and technology macro-indicators. Nevertheless, those results still remain modest when the overall size of the Chinese R&D system is considered. Originality/value – A general view of the Chinese system is offered in this study by combining both the analysis of the inputs of the Chinese R&D (in a internationally comparable way) system and outputs (up to international standards).


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