scholarly journals Operating Performance of the Firms Issuing Equity through Rights Offer

2003 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 25-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
P J Jijo Lukose ◽  
S Narayan Rao

Rights equity issue is one of the most common methods for subsequent equity issue in the Indian market. In rights offer, current shareholders are given short-term warrants on a pro-rata basis with the option to either purchase the new shares or sell the warrants in the market before expiration. Rights equity issue can be a potential solution to the adverse selection problem associated with capital issue and has comparatively low direct costs. In this paper, the authors analyse the operating performance of the BSE- listed manufacturing firms following rights equity issue and their linkages with firm-specific characteristics as hypothesized in the finance theory. They have selected 392 rights equity issues during the period 1991-2000 and used a methodology robust to the mean-reverting nature of accounting income. Consistent with empirical results for seasoned equity offerings in the US market, there is a statistically significant decline in the operating performance after the rights equity issue. This decline in performance is more severe for big firms, low market-to-book value firms, and firms with lower directors' holdings. Interestingly, foreign companies and companies belonging to small business groups do not show any declining trend. The authors find that the decline in perform- ance is due to the inefficiency in utilization of assets and not due to decrease in profit margins. Further, various proxies measuring market valuation also decline during the post-issue period after a run up in the pre-issue period. The results of the study suggest that over-investment hypothesis and agency models can better explain the decline in performance compared to asymmetric information hypothesis. The results also indicate that rights equity issues are not simple de-leveraging decisions. These findings have implications for several groups of capital market participants and the authors conclude with specific guidelines for them which are as follows: The investing public and analyst who are too optimistic about the issuers should consider deteriorating performance while arriving at the valuations. Investors should be vigilant about the ‘empire building’ implications of increased investments through rights issue. Optimistic managers should reassess the investment opportunities and have con-servative plans before approaching the market. The policy makers and regulators should come out with better regulatory framework to control and penalize the opportunistic managers.

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 1211-1232
Author(s):  
Jesse Alves da Cunha ◽  
Yudhvir Seetharam

Purpose Opinions have been divided on whether there is a rational explanation to the reason behind seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) or whether the explanation lies within the behavioural intricacies attributed to stock market participants. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This study investigates the long-run performance of firms conducting SEOs on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) over the period of 1998–2015, by examining the return performance and operating performance of firms, along with the impact of investor sentiment on these variables. Findings The results of this study are inconsistent with the existing literature, which argues that the long-run performance of issuing firms signalled an initial underreaction to SEOs buoyed by over-optimistic investors. Research limitations/implications Instead, the long-run performance of issuing firms is adequately explained by the rational models centred on the risk-return framework, implying that investors are reacting swiftly to SEOs in an unbiased fashion. Originality/value Investor sentiment does not materially influence the long-run share performance or operating performance of issuing firms, casting doubt on the ability of the market timing theory to explain the long-run performance of SEOs. The authors thus find that SEO performance cannot be explained by behavioural-based reasoning, in contrast to some asset pricing studies on the JSE which indicate the role of sentiment in explaining returns.


Author(s):  
Chihyoun Ahn ◽  
Mi-Ok Kim ◽  
Hyung-Rok Jung

Sustainability is directly linked to firms’ survival in competitive markets. To survive, firms need extra capital, and seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) are one sustainability strategy. Additional resources from SEOs leads to changes in firms’ operational structure, which brings future sustainability. This study investigates whether there is sustainability in firms’ operational structure and the effects of sustainable development on operational performance and market reaction. We measure the operational structure change of firms as three proxies: 1) the rate of increase in the number of operating segments, 2) the Berry–Herfindahl index using the ratio of sales of each operating segment out of total sales, and 3) the size of net investment in plant and equipment. Our results show that operational structure change has a statistically significant and positive correlation with long-term operating performance. In addition, there is no significant stock price response at first, but the operating performance in the next term is perceived as a favorable factor after 3 years. The results show that there are different responses in the stock market toward operational structure change. The empirical results confirm that firms with SEO have sustainable development in operational structure and that markets recognize firms’ sustainability strategy arising from SEOs.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-52
Author(s):  
Guannan Wang ◽  
Moshe Hagigi

PurposeMost prior literature focuses on how managers’ immediate needs affect their current earnings management. The purpose of this paper is to expand this body of literature by investigating the managerial motivation in a multi-period setting. The authors believe that managers’ incentive to engage in earning management around current equity issues is not only determined by the companies’ immediate need, but that it is also determined by their longer-term financing need.Design/methodology/approachThe authors examine all issuances of common stock, whether they are issued as seasoned equity offerings or whether as a reissuance of previously repurchased stock. They believe that the motivations for earnings management are similar for all these various stock-issuance events, which result in an increase in the number of outstanding common stock items.FindingsThe results of this paper reveal that those firms with less of a need for subsequent equity issuances are more likely to engage in “income- increasing” earnings management before their equity issuances. Conversely, equity issuers with more of a need for subsequent equity issuances would be more concerned about the potential impact of current earnings management on their future reported earnings and, therefore, would be less likely to manage earnings.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature by extending the findings of the prior literature, showing that managerial discretion does not only affect the total magnitude of earnings management, but that it also impacts the timing of the earnings management activities. Insights gained from our research may contribute to the literature and enable a better understanding of firms’ financial reporting strategy from a longer-run view.


2000 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 76 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Swint Friday ◽  
Shawn D. Howton ◽  
Shelly W. Howton

Author(s):  
Chihyoun Ahn ◽  
Mi-Ok Kim ◽  
Hyung-Rok Jung

Sustainability is directly linked to firms’ survival in competitive markets. To survive, firms need extra capital, and seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) are one sustainability strategy. Additional resources from SEOs leads to changes in firms’ operational structure, which brings future sustainability. This study investigates whether there is sustainability in firms’ operational structure and the effects of sustainable development on operational performance and market reaction. We measure the operational structure change of firms as three proxies: 1) the rate of increase in the number of operating segments, 2) the Berry–Herfindahl index using the ratio of sales of each operating segment out of total sales, and 3) the size of net investment in plant and equipment. Our results show that operational structure change has a statistically significant and positive correlation with long-term operating performance. In addition, there is no significant stock price response at first, but the operating performance in the next term is perceived as a favorable factor after 3 years. The results show that there are different responses in the stock market toward operational structure change. The empirical results confirm that firms with SEO have sustainable development in operational structure and that markets recognize firms’ sustainability strategy arising from SEOs.


2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinghua Gao ◽  
Yonghong Jia

This article examines the role of internal control requirements under the Sarbanes–Oxley (SOX) Act of 2002 in firms’ cost of raising equity capital. We find that, prior to the disclosure of internal control weaknesses (ICWs), ICWs are not directly associated with underwriters’ gross spread and seasoned equity offering (SEO) underpricing. After the disclosure, however, underwriters charge a risk premium on ICW issuers, especially on those disclosing ICWs in multiple consecutive years. We also find that SEO underpricing is exacerbated by multiple-year-disclosed ICWs but not by first-timers. More notably, we find that managers play a dominant role in deciding issue size pre-disclosure, but this dominance weakens post-disclosure. Taken together, our evidence suggests that internal controls help moderate the cost of raising equity capital and that ICW disclosures have significant implications for underwriters in the equity issue market.


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