The Underpricing of Initial Public Offerings: Further Canadian Evidence

Evidence of underpricing of initial public offerings (IPOs) has spawned a considerable theoretical literature attempting to explain the apparent contradiction to market efficiency. This article reassesses that evidence by examining not just common shares Canadian IPOs, but also unit and Junior stock IPOs from the period 1991-1998. Our study shows that Canadian IPOs as major IPOs in the world are underpriced. However, the degree of underpricing depends on the type of the issue. Unit IPOs and Junior Capital Pool (JCP) IPOs are more underpriced than common shares IPOs. Our results also suggest that the IPO market in Canada is «good» only for large offerings. We have entertained a number of possible explanations for the high initial return of Canadian issuing firms. We find that the underpricing is significantly related to the size and the period of the issue and to whether the IPO is a JCP or not. On the other hand, the prestige of the underwriter is positively related to the underpricing but this relationship is not significant.
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