IPO

  • 详情 Earnings Management as an Unintended Consequence of IPO Pricing Regulation: Causal Evidence from China
    Although it is common for companies to manage their accounting profits upward before going public in capital markets worldwide, existing literature documents that pre-listing earnings management is most prevalent in China. This has exacerbated the information asymmetry between IPO companies and external investors, and has become a bottleneck restricting China from improving investor protection. This paper posits that pre-listing earnings management is an unintended consequence of China's compromised IPO pricing mechanism, as the China Securities Regulatory Commission imposed a 23x P/E cap on IPOs in June 2014, following a failed market-oriented reform between 2009 and 2012. Since the pricing cap forced the companies to issue new shares at below-fair-market prices, they were motivated to inflate earnings per share to recover the losses. Using mainland Chinese companies listed on the Hong Kong stock market as the control group, we provide causal evidence for our proposition in a cohort DID model. We further find that such opportunistic accounting practice is concentrated among privately controlled IPO companies with high potential valuation. The pricing cap has also led to adverse capital market consequences as it significantly increases the probability of financial performance reversals and stock price crashes after companies go public, and also largely reduces investors' long-term returns. These findings suggest that the Chinese government's paternalistic investor protection has not achieved the desired results, and IPO pricing should be deregulated.
  • 详情 私募股权市场中企业背景有限合伙人的投资行为与绩效研究
    非金融企业是我国私募股权基金重要的有限合伙人(Limited Partner,LP)。本文利用清科数据库2000-2022年LP基金层面的样本数据,实证研究企业LP与非企业LP、不同类型企业LP在投资行为与投资绩效方面的差异。研究发现,在投资行为方面,相比金融背景 LP,企业 LP 会联合更多的 LP 一起投资、更偏好 CVC 基金、合作的基金管理人(General Partner,GP)的经验相对不足,投资经验丰富的企业LP所合作的GP的经验更为丰富。而在投资绩效方面,企业 LP 的绩效显著低于金融背景和其他背景LP。进一步研究发现,相比民营企业LP,国资企业LP更倾向于和国资企业LP、国资GP合作,且国资企业LP的投资绩效没有显著高于民营企业LP的绩效。而相比非高技术企业LP,高技术企业LP 更倾向于投资聚焦于本行业的基金,且高技术企业 LP 所投基金的内部收益率和投资回报倍数显著高于非高技术企业LP,但高技术企业LP所投基金的退出比例和IPO比例较低。本文扩展了私募股权LP研究的视角,研究成果有助于GP和初创企业更好地了解企业LP的投资诉求,从而提升投融资效率,并为培育耐心资本提供理论依据。
  • 详情 个人投资者是聪明投资者吗?——来自科创板个人投资者新股中签后弃购数据的证据
    “注册制”改革后,新股弃购现象逐渐增多,已经成为新股市场中一个不容忽视的重要现象,对影响新股弃购因素的研究将有助于加深对投资者行为的理解,具有重要的现实和理论意义。本文以科创板个人投资者新股中签后的弃购行为作为研究场景,从“信息效应”和“关注效应”的视角结合发行人基本面、资本市场情绪和投资者关注度三个代表性指标研究了个人投资者新股中签后弃购决策的影响因素。研究发现:(1)发行人基本面、缴款时市场情绪和投资者关注度均对个人投资者弃购产生重要影响,尤其是市场情绪是导致个人投资者弃购最为显著的影响因素。(2)2021年9月份科创板定价制度显著提升了个人投资者的弃购率,并且造成投资者弃购决策更加依赖市场情绪。(3)弃购率高的企业IPO后续表现较差,说明科创板投资者趋于理性,并且参与弃购的个人投资者是聪明的投资者。本文结果表明企业层面,市场层面和网络信息层面的信息能够影响个人投资者交易行为,并且科创板的个人投资者中存在聪明投资者。因此,监管机构应完善科创板主承销商包销制度,允许聪明投资者弃购新股将有效制约科创板的“三高现象”。
  • 详情 The Impact of Regional Economic Incentives on Underwriters' Market Share in China
    Purpose – To examine whether and how the different levels of regional economic incentives would have an effect on underwriters’ market share in general. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on Chinese IPO firms during the period 2006-2016, this study examines the impact of different levels of regional economic incentives on underwriters’ market share. Findings – The authors find thatregional economic incentives have a positive impact on underwriters’ market share and that local economic incentives have a significantly strongerimpact than central economic incentives. Furthermore, the authors find that IPO firms with underwriters driven by regional economic incentives experience worse post-IPO performance than firms with underwriters driven by central economic incentives, which do not experience a significant decline in post-IPO performance. Originality/value – Taken together, the authors’ findings are consistent with the notion that performance assessment motivates officials at various levels of government to bring companies in their jurisdiction to the IPO market prematurely. In addition, the results indicate that central economic incentives play a significantrole in driving China’s macroeconomic development and market-oriented system reforms. As such, they are one of the major driving forces behind China’s market-oriented system reforms.
  • 详情 Exploring China’s Dual-Class Equity Structure: Investor Protection Measures and Policy Implications
    Mainland China traditionally maintained the one-share-one-vote (OSOV) principle. Since 2019, however, Chinese authorities have introduced rules supporting the dual-class equity structure (DCES) for “innovative enterprises.” Due to concerns about investor-protection issues, China’s DCES currently operates as a “stringent permit system,” and as of the end of June 2023, only eight corporations have achieved listings with DCES adopted. This article provides a broad and profound policy analysis of the Chinese DCES system, including empirical analyses on the eight existing DCES cases. Also, this article explores the legal and economic aspects of investor-protection issues with respect to the China’s DCES. Regarding DCES rules in the context of investor protection, this article examines “three sets of investor safeguard measures”: (1) “three numerically speciffed rules” (this article calls the three rules the “10% equity rule,” the “10-time voting-right rule,” and the “2/3 voting-right rule”); (2) “sunset provisions” (such as event-driven sunset and time-based sunset); and (3) “rules converting special-voting shares (shares with higher voting rights) into shares with one vote” (such as conversion in mergers and a conversion in an amendment of the charter). Due to the concerns about the prevailing practice of tunneling in China, this article argues in favor of the “DCES with enhanced investor protection.” To foment founders’ entrepreneurship and allow more corporations with the DCES, however, this article recommends that the Chinese authorities gradually relax the implementation of the current DCES system of de facto stringent permit system. The future relaxation of the stringent permit system will also be beneffcial for China because, as a result of the escalated tension with the U.S., China has already lost a substantial portion of its reliable DCES-IPO markets in the U.S. Also, DCES-IPO markets in Hong Kong is still inactive. Thus, the establishment of viable DCES-IPO markets will soon be necessary in Mainland China.
  • 详情 The Role of Governmental Venture Capital in Value Creation for Investee Firms: Evidence from Chinese Government Guidance Funds
    We study the role of Chinese government guidance funds (GGFs) in value creation for investee firms. Using a sample of 2,855 firms that went public during the period of 2010-2021, we show that GGF-backed IPO firms had higher initial returns than non-VC-backed IPO firms and nonGGF VC-backed IPO firms. After decomposing the initial return into IPO underpricing and market overvaluation, we find that GGF-backed firms enjoyed higher overvaluation and lower underpricing than other firms. Consistent with investor sentiment and information asymmetry hypothesis, our results indicate that public investors value the benefits of political resources more than the costs of government interference associated with GGF sponsoring. However, GGF-backed firms did not outperform other-VC-backed firms when post-IPO long-term stock, operating and innovation performance is assessed. The divergence in the effects of GGFs observed in the financial and product markets reveals the complexity in evaluating the role of GGFs in value creation.
  • 详情 The China-U.S. Equity Valuation Gap
    The Chinese earnings yield differential relative to the U.S. switches from negative to positive around 2009, with the aggregate variation masking substantial cross-sector variation. Changes in sectoral composition and (changing) growth expectations are not important determinants of the variation in China-U.S. valuation differentials. Instead, changes in ownership structure, and most importantly cross-sectional and temporal variation in financial openness, are the key contributors. In addition, we show that IPOs in the banking sector and its internationalization played a critical role in the (relative) valuation change.
  • 详情 四板“转板”对上市公司 IPO 抑价及股票收益波动率的影响研究
    区域股权市场是我国多层次资本市场体系下的拟上市企业规范辅导平台,能够对公司进行优化培育,为未来上市做好准备,企业也可以在此获得一定的公众关注度,提升社会影响力。本文以 2010 年 1 月-2022 年 4 月从区域股权市场转板至交易所上市的公司为研 究对象,基于倾向得分匹配模型选取样本,实证研究了公司“转板”对首发后股价及其收益波动率的影响,并进一步探讨投资者关注度在其中的作用机制。回归结果表明,“转板”公司的开板日 IPO 抑价更高,且在上市后的一年内高抑价持续显著,此外“转板”公司短期内的股票收益波动率也更高。机制检验结果显示,公众投资者关注度在“转板”对 IPO 抑价和收益波动的影响中发挥传导用,而机构投资者关注度无此效应。
  • 详情 Does Venture Capital Reputation Contribute to Pre-IPO Performance of Entrepreneurial Firms in the Chinese Context?
    This study investigates venture capital (VC) reputation impact on the pre-IPO performance of the entrepreneurial firms backed by three kinds of VCs. This study employs backward stepwise regression models following prior theoretical frameworks to examine the research question. Based on a database of the top 50 VC firms ranked during 2016 to 2020 and their portfolio firms. This study shows some contingent contribution to pre-IPO firm performance. Firstly, the reputation of the Chinese government-owned VCs is negatively associated with their portfolio firm performance. Still, there is a positive relationship between foreign and local private VCs. Secondly, entrepreneurial firm performance is significantly associated with industry policy and entrepreneur’s performance than VC reputation. This study has practical implications for entrepreneurs and limited partners regarding their corporation relationships with the Chinese VCs.
  • 详情 'Stone From Other Mountains Can Polish Jade': How Chinese Securities Law Could Learn Lessons From Us Experience To Enhance Investor Protection and Market Efficiency
    This article aims to provide an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of PRC Securities Law 2020 which overhauls China’s securities regulatory framework to construct more efficient and transparent capital markets with enhanced investor protection and market integrity. The law constrains regulators’ administrative powers in deciding the outcome of IPOs as well as streamline the securities offering procedure. This article pays attention to key reform initiatives proposed by PRC Securities Law 2020, such as the registration-based IPO system, the enhanced investor protection and compensation regime, the cross-border supervision, and the harsher punishments for securities frauds. It also discusses the latest enforcement cases relating to high-profile financial frauds like the Luckin Coffee scandal which resulted in Luckin Coffee being delisted from NASDAQ in 2020. The analysis in the article is accompanied by relevant US securities law in the same area to offer a comparative angle, which is of interest to practitioners, academics and policymakers in major financial centres.