Clustering of initial public offerings, information revelation and underpricing

By providing an analysis of sequential going-public decisions the paper outlines conditions under which 'hot issue markets' arise, i.e. under which the likelihood of a second initial public offering increases after a first firm has gone public. Two effects can trigger the rise of hot issue markets in a setting with asymmetric and costly information about both firm quality and industry prospects. The risk-averse entrepreneur can be subject to risk-induced selling pressure because of uncertain industry prospects conveyed by a first IPO in the industry. Also, investors can free-ride on the industry news, and increase their valuation for a second firm by abstaining from further costly information production. Finally, the model offers an explanation for the empirical finding that hot issue markets exhibit a higher degree of underpricing than cold issue markets. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.