The Initial Performance of IPOs: Evidence from Athens Stock Exchange

Abstract

The pricing of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) in the short-run has been analysed by several theoretical and empirical studies referring to the major international stock markets and seems to be a common characteristic in most international markets. Last decade this topic has been popular in Europe due to the increasing number of firms going public. This paper empirically analyses the initial performance of the Greek Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) to provide a market case of international evidence on performances of IPOs. The sample consists of 225 firms listed on the Athens Stock Exchange for the period January 1990 until December of 2001. This represents 79 percent of the IPOs listed during this period. The remaining 21 percent (59 IPOs from 284 in total) was not studied due to shortage of data. Our study shows that Greek IPOs are on average underpriced by 63.92% with 30 IPOs (13.3%) to be overpriced. The initial undepricing is 67.14% for industrial firms, 54.55% for finance firms and 56.19% for other firms. In terms of sub-sectors the highest return is obtained in Information Technology group while the lowest return is observed in Telecommunication Group. Results suggest that the IPO market on Greece is 'good' only for large offerings. Investigation of factors influencing the initial performance show that market condition, demand multiple, cold-hot issue periods, and offer price independence are significant determinants of underpricing.