The Initial Public Offering (IPO) marks one of the most important events of a company. Basically, the aim is to generate maximum proceeds by selling the company’s shares to investors. However, the shares that are sold seem to be underpriced as the price significantly soars on the first trading day. Since the very first detection of this phenomenon in the United States in 1969, several subsequent studies have documented the existence of worldwide IPO underpricing. This study focuses on IPO Underpricing in the European and United States Stock Markets by outlining and discussing the following essential issues: What is underpricing in the context of the IPO? Which motivations are there and how do they impact? Is there IPO underpricing in the markets of Europe and the United States of America?

Master's Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Banking, Stock Exchanges, Insurance, Accounting, grade: 1,3, Munich Business School University of Applied Sciences, language: English, abstract: The economical development is improving and world trade volumes are expected to recover. The recorvery process is developing constantly but slowly: Share prices have rebounded within 2009, worldwide trade volumes have recovered slightly and are expected to catch up with values from the end of 2008 during the next year (cf. OECD 2009). The world is recovering from one of the most severe economic downturns since The Great Depression. Comparing GDP volumes from the previous period at the same time, OECD countries lost up to 2%. As a logical consequence the U.S. IPO market has been affected by the economic meltdown as well. "IPO activity tends to cluster in certain time periods, thus it appears in waves, so-called hot IPO markets" (Hamer 2007, 9). From 2007 to 2008 th e number of IPOs decreased. The U.S. market broke down by more than 85% in one year. In 2007 there were 160 IPOs whereas in 2008 21 securities went public fort the first time (cf. Ritter 2010, 2). After the slowest year for IPOs since the 1970s, the market began to show signs of life again in 2009. The number of offerings increased by 21% although the offering value decreased by almost 15% (cf. PWC 2010). [...]

Master's Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Banking, Stock Exchanges, Insurance, Accounting, grade: 1,3, Munich Business School University of Applied Sciences, language: English, abstract: The economical development is improving and world trade volumes are expected to recover. The recorvery process is developing constantly but slowly: Share prices have rebounded within 2009, worldwide trade volumes have recovered slightly and are expected to catch up with values from the end of 2008 during the next year (cf. OECD 2009). The world is recovering from one of the most severe economic downturns since The Great Depression. Comparing GDP volumes from the previous period at the same time, OECD countries lost up to 2%. As a logical consequence the U.S. IPO market has been affected by the economic meltdown as well. "IPO activity tends to cluster in certain time periods, thus it appears in waves, so-called hot IPO markets" (Hamer 2007, 9). From 2007 to 2008 th e number of IPOs decreased. The U.S. market broke down by more than 85% in one year. In 2007 there were 160 IPOs whereas in 2008 21 securities went public fort the first time (cf. Ritter 2010, 2). After the slowest year for IPOs since the 1970s, the market began to show signs of life again in 2009. The number of offerings increased by 21% although the offering value decreased by almost 15% (cf. PWC 2010). [...]

The Initial Public Offering (IPO) marks one of the most important events of a company. Basically, the aim is to generate maximum proceeds by selling the company’s shares to investors. However, the shares that are sold seem to be underpriced as the price significantly soars on the first trading day. Since the very first detection of this phenomenon in the United States in 1969, several subsequent studies have documented the existence of worldwide IPO underpricing. This study focuses on IPO Underpricing in the European and United States Stock Markets by outlining and discussing the following essential issues: What is underpricing in the context of the IPO? Which motivations are there and how do they impact? Is there IPO underpricing in the markets of Europe and the United States of America?

Diploma Thesis from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 1,3, European Business School - International University Schlo Reichartshausen Oestrich-Winkel, 80 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: This paper aims at establishing a link between the average level of initial return of IPO shares, existing underpricing explanations and the dot-com bubble. In years prior to the boom of the new economy, underpricing was explained by various theories, which have extensively been developed since decades. However, in the years 1998 to 2001 IPOs were overly underpriced, leading to assumptions about behavioural aspects and investor irrationality. Analysing a comprehensive dataset of 371 IPOs on the Frankfurter B rse between 1997 and 2007, this paper aims at providing evidence that the observed lower levels of initial returns in recent years can indeed be aligned with existing theories on the basis of rational behaviour of market participants. Firstly, the IPO process and its major participants will be presented followed by a review of relevant studies on the IPO phenomenon. In the next step, established underpricing theories are recapitulated. A descriptive analysis of the data sample points out the particularities concerning the company and transaction characteristics of the sample firms. In a last step, a regression analysis relates various proxies for information asymmetry to established underpricing theories. It gives reason to believe that the irrationality at the turn of the century has vanished and that underpricing can again be explained by established theories.

In 2000 more companies listed in Europe than in the US. This is mainly due to the success of quot;newquot; stock markets designed for high-growth companies. In this paper we analyse a sample of 482 Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), listed on five quot;newquot; European stock markets up to March 2001. We investigate the determinants of their first-day returns. We find a mean first-day return (underpricing) equal to +38.09%. Market returns, the IPO firm's risk and price revisions in the premarket are positively related to first-day returns, whereas IPO deal flow shows is inversely related to underpricing. We also show that the Internet euphoria impacts first-day returns.