IPOs In India Research Articles

Earnings performance of financial and non-financial IPOs in India: an empirical analysis based on market timing

Purpose The purpose of this study is to see if market timing predicts the first reporting of earnings performance after the issue, i.e. the issue-year earnings performance. Furthermore, this study examines the behaviour of financial and non-financial issuers’ performance in the light of varied market timings. Design/methodology/approach This study focuses on 785 NSE-listed initial public offerings that took place between April 2010 and December 2021. This study evaluates market timing by using moving averages. Using multiple regression analysis, the research further investigates the impact of market timing on issue-year earnings performance for financial and non-financial issuers on the basis of an interaction (moderation) effect. Findings This study finds that there is a significant presence of market timing in India, which predicts issue-year earnings performance. This study also demonstrates that hot market issuers’ performance is heavily influenced by market timing for non-financial issuers only. However, financial companies are not influenced by market timing. Research limitations/implications The findings of this study will assist the potential investors, analysts and stakeholders about performance of public issuers in India. Lower earnings performance for hot market non-financial issuers implies that the issuers’ market performance may not be supported by earnings figures. A market performance that is not synchronous with earnings will not last long. The findings of this study hold implications to the regulators as well to keep an eye on issuers’ earnings performance alongside the stock performance. Apart from that, the observations in context of financial and non-financial issuers provide insight about the variation in performance of public issues on the basis of background. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the only study to examine earnings performance in the context of market timing in India. This study holds significance in terms of methodology for anticipating the presence of market timing and the study of interaction effects. Moreover, it is one of the few studies that has focused on comparing financial and non-financial issuers around the world.

Earnings management and listing day performance of IPOs in India

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the influence of earnings management during initial public offerings on the listing day returns.Design/methodology/approachThe study collected data for 511 Indian IPOs that came between April 2003 and March 2019 for calculating earnings management. On the basis of the Cross Sectional Modified Jones Model 1995, the paper presents three proxies of earnings management as discretionary accruals (DA), discretionary current accruals (DCA) and discretionary long-term accruals (DLA). The study further used correlation and multiple regression analysis to assess the impact of earnings management on listing day returns.FindingsThe findings show that earnings management and listing day returns vary through issue-year and industry-type. Apart from it, the study reveals a greater contribution of short-term accruals in earnings management on the basis of higher DCA values. It also discloses that the aggregate level of earnings management (DA) influences listing returns, whereas DCA and DLA separately have no impact on the listing day returns of the Indian IPOs.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are useful to potential investors and analysts to observe, assess and understand the quality of financial reports that are based on fallacious disclosure of accounting figures. The study also reflects the efficacy of Indian regulatory norms for IPOs in constraining earnings management and underpricing, thus providing meaningful insight to the policy makers and the regulators.Originality/valueThis study is distinguished by its focus on determining the influence of earnings management on listing day returns in Indian IPOs by using three earnings management proxies.

PRICING AND PERFORMANCE OF INDIAN IPOs IN THE FREE-PRICING ERA: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

After the scrapping of Capital Issues (Control) Act, 1947 putting an end to the regime of Controller of Capital Issue (CCI) and allowing free pricing of public issues, capital market in India witnessed IPO activities from different sectors of the economy which was hitherto restricted by the CCI. The present paper tries to study two of the widely researched IPO anomalies in India during the free-pricing era: initial underpricing and long run underperformance. Consistent with the extant work, we find that IPOs in India belonging to the period 1992-2011 are also significantly underpriced. However, contrary to most of the international findings, the long run performance of these IPOs is also found to be positive and significant.

Corporate governance and underpricing of small and medium enterprises IPOs in India

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to examine the impact of corporate governance mechanisms, i.e. board structure and ownership structure on the underpricing of small and medium enterprises (SME) IPOs in India.Design/methodology/approachMost of the extant empirical research studies have either pivoted on mainstream IPOs or SMEs IPOs in developed economies, but the present study examines 200 SME IPOs issued during Feb 2012 to April 2017. Multiple regressions have been used to examine the impact of the corporate governance mechanisms on raw return (RR). Furthermore, robustness of the results has been verified through the employment of market-adjusted excess return (MAER) as an additional proxy of underpricing.FindingsThe results highlight that board size, inverse of board committees, board independence, board age, board directorships positively, and top ten shareholding negatively influence RR. Further, direction of promoter ownership variable indicates curvilinear relationship with underpricing. Other explanatory variables used in model lack statistical validity. Similar results have been obtained when variables were regressed against MAER with related board members being additionally significant in model.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that Indian investors do take cues from board structure and ownership patterns for making investment decisions in small- and medium-sized firms. Further, the results are also helpful to top management in structuring their boards.Originality/valueThe present research enriches SME IPOs underpricing literature because the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on unadjusted returns is relatively under explored particularly within the context of small- and medium-sized firms.

Comparative Analysis of Underpricing and Subscription of SME IPOs and Main Board IPOs in India

SME (Small & Medium Enterprises) IPOs formally debuted in India in 2012 when BSE and NSE introduced SME Platform on their exchanges along with Main Board Platform (for non-SMEs). SEBI has eased the listing criteria for SMEs to make it more attractive. The focus of this study is to assess and compare efficiency of SME IPOs with respect to Main Board IPOs in terms of price discovery using underpricing analysis. The study is based on sample of 1110 IPOs which comprises 526 SME IPOs and 584 Main Board IPOs that got listed on BSE, NSE and on their SME Platform during the period 2000 to 2019. Outcome of this analysis suggests that SME IPOs are more efficient in terms of underpricing. Further, the demand levels in case of SMEIPOs are lower compared with their counterparts, even though the probability of listing day gains is high. This study will provide insight to the policymakers, investing community, issuers and also add to the body of the knowledge on SME IPOs which is still at the nascent stage amongst the research community.

Short Term Performance Analysis of IPOs in India

The research is aimed at the short term IPO returns that are issued on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The evaluation of IPO is done on the basis of the returns generated on the day of issue, 10 and 30 days after the day of issue. The significance of this paper can be realized from the fact whether the return generated in short term in comparison to the market are more or less i.e. the IPO has outperformed the index as a benchmark. The study includes a sample of 28 IPO’s issued from the year 2013 to 2015. The results showed that the mean % performance of IPO on the day of issue, 10 and 30 days after the day of issue is 9%, 10% and 10% respectively for NSE and 8%, 9% and 14% respectively for BSE. The above results are also supported with relative valuation index which thus brings us to a very important conclusion that the Indian Stock market provides significant returns within 30 days from the date of issue of share.

Market timing and pseudo market timing: an empirical examination of IPOs in India

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of market timing and pseudo market timing on equity issuance decisions of IPOs in an emerging economy – India. Indian new issues market provides a perfect setting to test market timing against pseudo market timing due to two reasons. First, the US literature shows that most underpriced IPOs are highly overvalued and in India, the authors have the evidence of underpricing of IPOs. But whether Indian IPOs are overvalued or not it is yet to be tested. Second, majority of IPOs were issued in India only after the 1991 economic reforms which may signal the evidence for pseudo market timing hypothesis.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use direct test to examine the impact of market timing and pseudo market timing variables on the IPO activity. The direct tests of market timing and pseudo market timing hypotheses are based on the positive relation of market timing variables and market conditions variables with IPO activity. The authors examine the long-run performance of IPOs by using the calendar-time regression approach to test market timing against pseudo market timing. This serves as indirect test of market timing and pseudo market timing. Evidence of market timing using indirect test shows that there is a decline in the long-run stock performance of IPOs.FindingsThe results show that in India, firms issue equity not just due to market conditions but they also issue equity in order to time the market. The results of market timing are also supported by the calendar-time approach results. However, the authors find that the evidence of market timing is stronger for hot issue markets as compared to cold issue markets.Originality/valueThis is the first study to comprehensively examine market timing and pseudo market timing using direct and indirect tests for an emerging market context.

Information Asymmetry, IPO Grading& Pricing Efficiency: An Empirical Analysis of IPOs in India

Researches in the past have clearly witnessed the evidence of underpricing of IPOs. Many efforts have been made to explain this phenomenon and ‘Information Asymmetry’ has been cited as one of the most significant causes. In 2006, SEBI introduced IPO grading as a technique of IPO certification, as a pioneer effort in the world and made it mandatory in May, 2007. It was emphasized by SEBI that it can reduce underpricing by curtailing the level of information asymmetry. The purpose of this certification process is to provide information to the individual investors regarding fundamentals of the issuer. SEBI again made IPO grading voluntary in February 2014 citing that IPO grading had failed to serve its pre stated objectives. SEBI alleged that correlation was found neither between grading and subscription nor between grading and post listing performance. This study aims at analysing whether the grading technique is helpful in reducing underpricing and assisting retail investors in better decision making. The data have been collected for 5 years from 2011–2015 for book built IPOs only. The first three years i.e. from 2011 to 2013 is the period when grading was mandatory and next two years i.e. 2014 & 2015 when grading was not mandatory. OLS regression analysis has been used for analysing this cross sectional data. The study reveals that higher graded IPOs are not better subscribed by retail investors. The paper also concluded that the under-pricing is not significantly different for graded and non graded IPOs but when only graded IPOs were analysed it was found that higher graded (with grade 4&5) IPOs witnessed lesser under-pricing. The authors are of the opinion that if retail investors would have been made more aware, the performance of the IPO grading may have been different as some of the studies show that the higher graded IPOs are better subscribed by institutional investors.

Initial Performances of IPOs in India: Evidence from 2010-14

In this paper, we studied listing day performance pertaining to 113 IPOs in India during January, 2010 to December, 2014, listed in NSE India. We found that there is, on the average, significantly positive return on the listing day. The market adjusted abnormal returns of all sample IPO companies were 7.19 %. It is observed that IPOs are initially underpriced. We have applied t-test to verify the returns and mean initial return of 7.19 % and proved that average returns are significantly lower also compare to historical returns of IPO. Regression model has been used to analyse the relationship between degree of underpricing with independent variables such as issue price, issue size, issue oversubscription and market index return. The result of regression analysis shows that there was no significant relationship between the degree of underpricing and explanatory variables except oversubscription of issue. The study suggests that investors can make their investment in new issues as IPOs are underpriced in initial days.

Financial Value Creation: A Comparative Study of VC-Backed IPOs and Non-VC-Backed IPOs in India

As financial investors in portfolio companies, venture capital (VC) firms are expected to add value through continuous monitoring and sustained involvement. Such an effort is expected to give VC-backed IPO firms (VC IPOs) an edge over those IPO firms not backed by VCs. We examine such value additions use a comparative analysis of operating and stock performance data of VC IPOs against three groups of non-VC POs. We identified a set of 92 VC IPOs and 182 non VC IPOs. The 182 non-VC IPOs were further subdivided into industry and size groups. While Wilcoxon tests were used to compare the medians of operating and stock performance, panel data regression models were used to establish the impact of VC on those differential performances. We find that the medians of VC IPOs on most operating performance parameters are better than non-VC IPO groups. But the relational tests could not attribute the better performance to VC influence. We conclude that this could be indicative of VCs’ superior ability to identify promising ventures and push them toward their maximum potential. This study is one of the pioneering efforts in exploring VC value creation in the Indian context. We also extend the capital market research in accounting to a VC context.

The Effects of Experience on Investor Behavior: Evidence from India's IPO Lotteries

We exploit the randomized allocation of stocks in 57 Indian IPO lotteries to 1.7 million investors between 2007 and 2012 to provide new estimates of the causal effect of investment experiences on future investment behavior. We find that investors experiencing exogenous gains in IPO stocks (the treatment) are more likely to apply for future IPOs, increase trading in their portfolios, exhibit a stronger disposition effect, and tilt their portfolios towards the sector of the treatment IPO. Treatment effects are stronger for smaller accounts, and inherit the sign of the IPO first-day return.

Pricing of IPOs and their after issue performance in the Indian equity market

This study investigates the pricing of new issues in the Indian equity market during the period shortly following the deregulation of the market for new issues. We evaluate the importance of book value and market value estimates in determining issue prices as well as prices on the first day of trading. We also use variables that may reduce uncertainty (age to proxy for awareness of the company) and information asymmetry (the extent of the promoter’s contribution to the new issue) in order to test whether uncertainty and information asymmetry have an impact on pricing of new issues. Results indicate that pricing of new issues appears to be consistent with rational decision‐making. We also examine the extent of underpricing of IPOs in India by calculating the rate of return earned by the subscribers on the first day the shares trade publicly. The first day return is, on average, 72 per cent. We then simulate what this return would have been if the government regulations had still been in place. With government restrictions, the first day’s return would have been 160 per cent. These results are consistent with the expectations that removal of restrictions results in lower returns to subscribers and lower cost of capital for the issuing firm. Finally, we examine whether there are differences in first day returns or other variables for companies that issue shares at a price above the government benchmark and the companies that issues shares at prices below the benchmark. Results indicate that there are no significant differences in first day returns between the two groups of companies. There are, however, significant differences between the two groups with respect to relative size of the issue and the difference between the forecasted and current book value. This indicates that the CCI price might be used as a benchmark, which is, then adjusted upwards or downwards to place greater emphasis on expected performance.

The Structure of Ownership and the Theory of the Firm

The separation of ownership from control produces a condition where the interests of owner and of ultimate manager may, and often do, diverge, and where many of the checks which formerly operated to limit the use of power disappear.... In creating these new relationships, the quasi-public corporation may fairly be said to work a revolution. It ... has divided ownership into nominal ownership and the power formerly joined to it. Thereby the corporation has changed the nature of profit-seeking enterprise.1