Seasoned Equity Offerings Research Articles

Valuation uncertainty, home and host market uncertainty, and cross-border seasoned equity offerings

This study examines how market timing can affect host market reaction to cross-border seasoned equity offerings (SEOs), an event generally viewed unfavorably by investors. We assume that firms engage in market timing in response to valuation uncertainty (VU), home market uncertainty (HMU) and/or host market uncertainty (HSU), and that raising capital abroad faces higher scrutiny costs and familiarity bias from host market investors. We conjecture that timing strategies provide signals that vary in strength to host market investors and that dual-timing strategies may strengthen an existing signal. Our hypotheses are tested on a sample of 190 cross-border SEOs that were issued on the U.S. stock market between 1990 and 2017 by firms from 29 countries. Using event study methodology, we find that market timing based on VU is negatively related to host market valuation and that a dual-timing strategy with HMU or HSU generally produces a stronger signal. Our results have practical relevance for stock markets that suffer from high uncertainty; we estimate that a high VU firm with a $1 billion valuation suffers a drop of $31.3 million in market valuation during a high host market uncertainty (high HSU) compared with low host market uncertainty (low HSU).

Post-IPO Geographic Expansion

Transitioning to public ownership affects where firms invest. Post-IPO, we find that firms conduct more geographically diversifying acquisitions on the intensive and extensive margins, relative to both withdrawn IPO filings and seasoned matched peers. The effect is larger for IPO filers that are large relative to their local economy, and smaller for IPOs led by less active underwriters. We find little evidence of geographic expansion after seasoned equity offerings, suggesting that capital raised does not drive the expansion decision. Our results suggest that going public alleviates significant geographic-based information frictions faced by private firms.

The Differential Role of R&D and SG&A for Earnings Management and Stock Price Manipulation*

ABSTRACTThis paper documents a differential role of R&D versus selling, general, and administrative expenses (SG&A) for real earnings management. The distinction of these two components is important because prior studies mostly examine their combined use, but firms could manipulate them differently given the differing valuation implications. Reduced SG&A is viewed positively by investors as evidence of cost reduction, while reduced R&D is viewed negatively by investors as such expenditures are critical signals of expected growth. I examine their use in the context of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) as well as firms receiving accounting and auditing enforcement releases (AAERs). Although both groups face strong incentives to manage earnings upward by reducing expenses, I predict and find that firms will reduce SG&A but increase R&D. During the manipulation period, SEO and AAER firms exhibit lower discretionary SG&A and higher discretionary R&D, relative to control firms, and investors positively value low discretionary SG&A and high discretionary R&D. Overall, this study confirms the importance of distinguishing between R&D and SG&A in real earnings management contexts and suggests a complementary (substitutive) relation between cutting SG&A (R&D) and accruals management.

Seasoned equity crowdfunded offerings

This paper conjectures that, just as SEO (seasoned equity offering) firms are likely to face fewer information asymmetry problems relative to IPO firms, the same applies to SECO relative to initial ECF (equity crowdfunding) campaign firms. This is mainly due to new information at a SECO - such as pre-money valuation gains – that reduces adverse selection problems. Using a sample of 709 UK ECF firms conducting a first SECO campaign over the 2011–2018 period, the probit results suggest that annualised valuation gains between the initial and SECO campaigns increases the probability of having a successful first SECO campaign but the equity offered lowers this probability. First SECO success is also related to different platform shareholder structures. The results show that the nominee model and coinvestment model dominate the direct model in terms of the probability of conducting a successful first SECO campaign. This is likely linked to reduced adverse selection and moral hazard problems stemming from no separation between ownership and control and enhanced due diligence and monitoring capabilities.

A global analysis of Private Investments in Public Equity

Raising equity capital via Private Investments in Public Equity (PIPEs) has been rising in popularity, matching Seasoned Equity Offerings (SEOs). We use over 10,000 PIPEs in a global setting during 1995–2015 to assess how and through which channels institutional frameworks affect the issuers' performance. We document a significant decline in the market reaction, especially during 2004–2015 and find that firms issuing equity via PIPEs have significantly worse fundamentals. We also show that country governance matters as issuing firms operating in countries with better regulatory environments outperform others. Finally, we find that regulatory enforcement is a plausible underlying channel for the positive effect of the institutional frameworks on PIPEs performance.

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND STOCK MARKET REACTION TO SEASONED EQUITY OFFERING ANNOUNCEMENT BY FIRMS IN NIGERIA

This study examined the effect of corporate governance variables of board independence, institutional ownership, managerial ownership, board size, and director expertise on the market reaction to seasoned equity offering (SEO) announcements by firms in the Nigerian stock market. The event study methodology was employed, and abnormal returns were computed using the market model. A total of 62 announcements by 38 firms listed on the Nigerian stock exchange from 1st January 2006 to 31st December 2016 were included in the analysis. The study recorded significant positive cumulative abnormal returns before and after the announcement day, and a significant negative cumulative abnormal return upon the announcement day of SEOs. Similarly, significant positive cumulative abnormal returns were recorded six months before the SEO announcement day and negative significant cumulative abnormal returns six, twelve, and twenty-four months after the announcements. Furthermore, there were significant cumulative abnormal returns upon SEO announcements for all the proxies of corporate governance assessed by the study. The implication of the findings of negative significant cumulative abnormal returns on the day of the announcement and beyond was consistent with previous arguments that firms issuing SEOs earn negative abnormal returns on the day of the announcement was the result of the information asymmetry between managers and investors. By contrast, the significant cumulative abnormal returns based on corporate governance suggested that corporate governance significantly impacted on SEO announcement returns in Nigeria. These findings suggest that policy makers should pay more attention to directors’ expertise, institutional ownership, board independence, and board size, as our results showed that investors might view them as dependable pointers of positive corporate information for the market, thus guaranteeing the best use of SEO proceeds.

Does investor sentiment affect stock pricing? Evidence from seasoned equity offerings in China

<abstract> Seasoned equity offerings attract a great deal of attention from investors in China's stock market, and they provide natural experimental environment for examining relationship between investor sentiment and asset pricing. We measure the investor sentiment on the individual stock level and examine its impact on stock pricing by using seasoned equity offerings (SEO) samples in the China's stock market from 2006 to 2019. The study shows that investor sentiment gradually rises during the Pre-SEO window and stays at a relatively high level after the new equity issuance. Meanwhile, investor sentiment is a significant pricing factor during the SEO window. However, the role of investor sentiment is different during different stages of SEO events, with a negative and positive impact on the Pre-SEO window and Post-SEO window respectively. Overall, this study identifies the pricing mechanism of investor sentiment in Chinese SEO market and provides some policy implications for portfolio management and market regulation. </abstract>

The Relationship between Earnings Management and Equity Market Timing

ABSTRACT Objective: this study aims to verify if companies that practice equity market timing have higher earnings management levels around the stock issue period. Method: we used a sample of 68 seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) in Brazil from 2004-2015. First, we ranked the sample among companies that used market timing (timers) behavior in the SEOs and those that did not (non-timers). Second, we estimated each company’s earnings management levels by the Modified Jones and Modified Jones with ROA models. Finally, we tested the relationship between earnings management and equity market timing using a linear regression model. Results: the results show that the timers managed earnings more intensively in the quarters around SEOs than the non-timers. This happens to increase net income and consequently improve profitability ratios. Therefore, to explore opportunity windows, managers can inflate accounting profit through accruals and influence the market’s ability to correctly price shares. Conclusion: Brazilian companies practice earnings management as a way of exploiting opportunity windows in the stock market. The conclusion reinforces the need for a careful analysis of the company’s profits by investors, analysts, auditors, and regulators while allowing efforts to avoid such practices through compliance, governance, and regulation.

The Price of Corporate Social Irresponsibility at Seasoned Equity Offerings: International Evidence

We examine the effect of corporate social responsibility engagements signaled through negative environmental and social (E&S) incidents on equity financing via seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) across 25 countries. The results show that negative E&S incidents significantly aggravate SEO underpricing, increasing cost of equity capital. We assess potential explanations from the perspective of corporate reputation risk and regulatory risk. We find support for both channels. Social reputation acts as a buffer against reputation risk arising from the E&S risk events while strong country-level E&S policies inflict regulatory risk to violating firms following E&S incidents leading to adverse E&S effects at SEOs. Further analysis reveals that the adverse pricing effects of firm E&S risk are driven by the social awareness of institutional and retail investors. We also find that the impact is negligible with the presence of larger blockholders. Managers appear to pre-empt the adverse effects by reducing the likelihood of equity financing in wake of negative incidents. Finally, there are rich cross-country variations in the pricing effects of E&S risk whereby common law countries and those with strong investor protection and individualistic but low power distance cultures suffer most from the adverse E&S incidents around SEOs.

Social Media Management: Evidence on Seasoned Equity Offerings

We find that SEO firms receive more favorable messages on the financial social media platform, StockTwits, around the periods 62 trading days up to 10 trading days prior offerings and from 10 trading days after offerings to the expiration of lockup agreements, compared to their non-SEO matching controls. On average, evidence shows that SEO firms ranking in the top quartile of abnormal pre-SEO bullishness on social media reduce their underpricing by 1.12%. Moreover, insiders from active SEO firms exhibit higher net sales in the 90 days following the expiration of lockup agreements. A battery of validity tests rules out Irrational Exuberance and Investor Attention. Overall, our key findings are consistent with the Active Social Media Management Hypothesis.

Politically affiliated analysts

Government ownership of financial intermediaries is pervasive around the world. In this study, we examine the impact of the common government ownership between the brokerage and listed firms on the information production role of brokerage firms. We show that affiliated analysts issue more optimistic recommendations on stocks of firms controlled by the same government entity that controls their brokerage firms. This optimistic bias is particularly strong during economic shocks and before impending political promotion events. We also find that stocks recommended by politically affiliated analysts underperform those recommended by independent analysts, suggesting that the optimism is driven by conflicts of interest rather than advantageous information. Furthermore, we find that sophisticated investors perceive the potential bias and incorporate it into their trading. Consistent with an exchange of favors story, politically affiliated brokerage firms receive more underwriting commitments during the issuance of local government debt, and governments subscribe for more shares during seasoned equity offerings by these connected brokerage firms.

The Choice of Flotation Methods Evidence from Chinese Seasoned Equity Offerings

The Choice of Flotation Methods Evidence from Chinese Seasoned Equity Offerings

Seasoned Equity Offerings and Stock Price Crash Risk

Using a large sample of U.S. firms during 1987–2011, we find robust evidence that the issuance of seasoned equity is associated with abnormally high future stock price crash risk. The association between seasoned equity offerings and crash risk is stronger among offerings that involve the sale of secondary shares (existing shares sold by insiders or large blockholders). We also find that recent seasoned equity issuers are far less likely to experience sudden positive price jumps relative to firms that have not recently issued equity. Our findings of elevated crash risk and diminished jump risk, when taken together, are consistent with a heightened propensity for firms to hoard bad news but not good news when issuing equity.

How economic policy uncertainty affects the cost of raising equity capital: Evidence from seasoned equity offerings

Economic policy uncertainty (EPU) increases the cost of raising equity capital, especially when the economy is weak. A one standard deviation increase in the EPU index developed by Baker, Bloom, and Davis (2016) is associated with a 43 basis point increase in the price discount of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) during the 2000−2014 period. The cross-sectional analysis shows that the EPU effect on SEO discounts is stronger for firms with greater dependence on government spending, less informative stock price, or a smaller EPU beta. Moreover, there are fewer SEO activities in periods when there is a high degree of policy uncertainty.

Real Earnings Management, Manipulation Incentives and Accounting Conservatism:Evidence from China

ABSTRACT This study examines the effects of real earnings management on accounting conservatism, based on 2,121 A-share listed firms in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2005 to 2017. The results indicate that real earnings management has a significant negative impact on listed firms’ accounting conservatism. The real earnings management based on loss avoidance, seasoned equity offerings (SEO), maintaining growth and reversing loss reduces accounting conservatism, while that based on earnings smoothing incentive improves accounting conservatism. Real earnings management of firms with poor corporate governance has a more significant impact on accounting conservatism than firms with good corporate governance. The findings also offer reference for further strengthening listed firms’ financial supervision, improving corporate governance structure, and promoting the healthy development of the securities market.

Venture Capital Backing and Issuance of Seasoned Equity Offerings: Evidence from China*

AbstractWe analyze how venture capital (VC) affects the timing of seasoned equity offering (SEO) issuance and the post‐SEO performance of Chinese companies during the 2006–2018 period. Empirical analysis confirms that VC “accelerates” SEO issuance because of greater financing demands. Thus, VC‐backed firms prefer to issue their first SEOs earlier than non‐VC‐backed firms. Moreover, quick SEOs promoted by venture capitalists are more underpriced because of information asymmetry.

Accounting information in innovative small cap firms: evidence from London’s Alternative Investment Market

We posit that investors and social media users place more weight on cash flows than on earnings for innovative small cap firms and that, in turn, innovative small cap firms (i) manage cash flows more than earnings, and (ii) disclose more cash flow than earnings information on social media. Using a matched sample of innovative and non-innovative small cap firms listed on the London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM), we document that the value relevance of cash flows (earnings) is higher (lower) for innovative compared to non-innovative small cap firms. Using Twitter to examine the demand of accounting performance measures, we find that Twitter users more frequently retweet and include as ‘Favorite’ information about cash flows, than information about earnings for innovative small cap firms. We then show that innovative small cap firms engage less intensively in earnings management and exhibit higher abnormal cash flows compared to non-innovative small cap firms. Innovative small cap firms emphasise more information in their tweets about cash flows and less about earnings compared to non-innovative small cap firms. Cross-sectional tests demonstrate that seasoned equity offerings provide additional incentives to engage in increasing abnormal cash flow management activities.

Perbandingan Reaksi Pasar atas Seasoned Equity Offering dengan Tujuan Investasi dan Membayar Utang

This research compares market reaction to seasoned equity offering (SEO) with investment purpose and debt repayment purpose. The research was triggered by pecking order theory’s. The sample of this research is 62 Indonesian public companies that carried out SEO during the 2013 to 2019 period. The SEO announcement date is used as event date. The event window is five days around the event date. Abnormal return is measured by market-adjusted model. The result of independent sample t-test shows that market reaction to SEO with investment purpose is better than market reaction to SEO with debt repayment purpose. Average cumulative abnormal return (CAR) of SEO with investment purpose is 0.038 and for SEO with debt repayment purpose is minus 0.006. The difference is statistically significant (p-value=0.011). Therefore, it is concluded that markets response to additional equity offering, in this case using SEO, depends on the purpose of the SEO.&#x0D; Keywords: Seasoned Equity Offering; Market Reaction; Abnormal Return; Market-Adjusted Model.

Further evidence on long-run abnormal returns after corporate events

This paper investigates abnormal standardized returns (ASRs) after major corporate events. Dutta, Knif, Kolari, and Pynnonen (2018) have shown that the ASR t-test has superior size and power compared to traditional test statistics. Based on this new test statistic compared to traditional test methods, we re-examine long-run abnormal returns after mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, seasoned equity offerings, dividend initiations, stock repurchases, stock splits, and reverse stock splits. While some recent studies report disappearing long-run event effects over time, our ASR tests in different subperiods from 1980 to 2015 detect significant long-run abnormal returns after these corporate actions. Graphical analyses of ASRs further support our statistical test results. We conclude that long-run abnormal returns persist after major corporate events.

The Impact of Venture Capital Holding on the Firms Life-cycle: Evidence from IPO Firms

Venture capital firms often continue to stay as shareholders and on the board of directors of their investee companies even after they have gone public. This paper examines the impact of venture capital ownership beyond the IPO listing on important consequential, corporate decisions in a firm's lifetime, including time to dividend initiation. Using a sample of 1,409 US firms listed between 2000 and 2017, we find that venture capital firms delay the time to initiate dividends by approximately two years. The presence of venture capital firms further delays the use of external growth strategies (through acquisitions) and postpones the introduction to the corporate bond market while relying more quickly on seasoned equity offerings. Several robustness checks are performed, including controlling for possible reverse causality. These results are consistent with the view that venture capital firms extend the growth phase of the firms' life-cycle prior to becoming a mature firm. We further show that the presence of VC funds in the firm at time of these decisions leads to positive stock price reactions, suggesting they offer a certification effect for continued growth opportunities.