This study examined the prospectuses of the 380 Australian industrial company IPOs from
January 1994 to December 2004. The main purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between underwriter reputation and underpricing in terms of Australian IPO data This study adopts two approaches to developing underwriter reputation proxies and uses the lead underwriters recorded in the prospectuses to calculate the two reputation proxies:
1. The proportion of the number of issues an underwriter is involved in (Reputation 1).
2. The proportion of the amount of capital raised by each underwriter (Reputation 2).
The regression results from the two reputation proxy variable models, excluding outliers, suggest that the explanatory variables that significantly determine the level of underpricing return are the two reputation variables (Reputation by Issues and Reputation by Capital Sought), market sentiment, share options, capital sought and underwriter options. Similar to previous U.S. underwriter reputation literature, the two reputation variables suggest a positive and significant relationship between underwriter reputation and the level of underpricing. The market sentiment and underwriter options variable also show a positive and significant relationship with underpricing
return, although a negative relationship was expected for the underwriter options variable. The positive relationship between underwriter reputation and underpricing adds some international evidence to Loughran and Ritter’s (2004) claim that new issuers are willing to hire underwriters willing to offer higher underpricing to subscribers. The positive relationship between underwriter options and underpricing also evidence to Loughran and Ritter’s (2004) claim that underwriters seek to underprice IPOs to their own advantage.
Our results suggest that more prestigious underwriters are associated with a higher level of underpricing. Other variables that are found to be significant in explaining the level of IPO underpricing are market sentiment, share options, total capital raised and underwriter options.