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"The post-IPO "pop" also benefits the giant investment banks that underwrite IPOs" Great oxymoron. If an IPO "pops" post-IPO, and during a defined period of t
by antr 14y ago
"The post-IPO "pop" also benefits the giant investment banks that underwrite IPOs"
Great oxymoron.
If an IPO "pops" post-IPO, and during a defined period of time the underwriters essentially underwrite, a.k.a. insure, the offering at the prospectus price, the appointed underwriting banks have a capital loss in the transaction. In dozens, if not +100 IPOs, underwriting banks have lost money.
- lmm 14y agoHuh? Don't they underwrite it by putting out a standing offer to buy at the prospectus price? In the case of a "pop" this costs them nothing (and indeed they make money if anyone takes them up on it, since they can turn around and sell at the market price); it's when it doesn't pop that the bank's in trouble.
- patmcguire 14y agoA "pop" for an IPO means an increase in share price. Think pop vs. fizzle, not pop in bubble terms. Companies generally underprice the stock going through the underwriting banks so by the time they're sure to have a liquid market. The banks have an asset they have to give away at a price everyone knows is almost certainly below what it should be, so it winds up being a patronage thing. Not this time though. Someone who worked on the deal at JP Morgan told me one of the big causes of the problem was that the clients in on IPOs usually ask for ten times as much stock as they actually want under the assumption they'll only get a small amount of what they ask for. With Facebook there was such a huge quantity that they actually got it and freaked out. But that's one data point from someone with a lot of incentive to self-justify.