IPO underpricing, wealth losses and the curious role of venture capitalists in the creation of public companies

Lower underpricing amongst venture-backed IPOs has been attributed to a certification role for venture capitalists. We argue that differences in underpricing per se are uninformative and possibly misleading when not controlling for differences in entrepreneurs' incentives to control underpricin...

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Main Author: Ljungqvist, A
Format: Working paper
Published: University of Oxford 1999
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author Ljungqvist, A
author_facet Ljungqvist, A
author_sort Ljungqvist, A
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description Lower underpricing amongst venture-backed IPOs has been attributed to a certification role for venture capitalists. We argue that differences in underpricing per se are uninformative and possibly misleading when not controlling for differences in entrepreneurs' incentives to control underpricing. Using 1980s and 1990s data, we show that entrepreneurs' wealth losses, a more suitable measure than underpricing, are unaffected by the presence of venture backers. Thus, we find no evidence of venture certification as far as IPO pricing is concerned. We also find possible evidence of a conflict of interest between venture backers and entrepreneurs which could explain why more prestigious underwriters in the 1990s are associated with higher underpricing.
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spelling oxford-uuid:b4ba8142-1b07-47b5-8949-89c81d1261d72022-03-27T04:28:16ZIPO underpricing, wealth losses and the curious role of venture capitalists in the creation of public companiesWorking paperhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_8042uuid:b4ba8142-1b07-47b5-8949-89c81d1261d7Bulk import via SwordSymplectic ElementsUniversity of Oxford1999Ljungqvist, ALower underpricing amongst venture-backed IPOs has been attributed to a certification role for venture capitalists. We argue that differences in underpricing per se are uninformative and possibly misleading when not controlling for differences in entrepreneurs' incentives to control underpricing. Using 1980s and 1990s data, we show that entrepreneurs' wealth losses, a more suitable measure than underpricing, are unaffected by the presence of venture backers. Thus, we find no evidence of venture certification as far as IPO pricing is concerned. We also find possible evidence of a conflict of interest between venture backers and entrepreneurs which could explain why more prestigious underwriters in the 1990s are associated with higher underpricing.
spellingShingle Ljungqvist, A
IPO underpricing, wealth losses and the curious role of venture capitalists in the creation of public companies
title IPO underpricing, wealth losses and the curious role of venture capitalists in the creation of public companies
title_full IPO underpricing, wealth losses and the curious role of venture capitalists in the creation of public companies
title_fullStr IPO underpricing, wealth losses and the curious role of venture capitalists in the creation of public companies
title_full_unstemmed IPO underpricing, wealth losses and the curious role of venture capitalists in the creation of public companies
title_short IPO underpricing, wealth losses and the curious role of venture capitalists in the creation of public companies
title_sort ipo underpricing wealth losses and the curious role of venture capitalists in the creation of public companies
work_keys_str_mv AT ljungqvista ipounderpricingwealthlossesandthecuriousroleofventurecapitalistsinthecreationofpubliccompanies