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Contribution Details

Type Journal Article
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title How syndicate short sales affect the informational efficiency of IPO prices and underpricing
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Björn Bartling
  • Andreas Park
Item Subtype Original Work
Refereed Yes
Status Published in final form
Language
  • English
Journal Title Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Geographical Reach international
ISSN 0022-1090
Volume 45
Number 2
Page Range 441 - 471
Date 2010
Abstract Text When a company goes public, it is standard practice that the underwriting syndicate allocates more shares than are issued. The underwriter thus holds a short position that it commonly fills by aftermarket trading when market prices fall or, when prices rise, by executing the so-called overallotment option. This option is a standard feature of initial public offering (IPO) arrangements that allows the underwriter to purchase more shares from the issuer at the original offer price. We propose a theoretical model to study the implications of this combination of short position and overallotment option on the pricing of the IPO. Maximizing the sum of both the profits from their share of the offer revenue and the potential profits from aftermarket trading, we show that underwriters strategically distort the offer price. This results either in exacerbated underpricing when favorably informed underwriters lower prices to secure a signaling benefit, or in informationally inefficient offer prices when underwriters pool in offer prices irrespective of their information.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1017/S0022109010000128
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