Industry dependent performance of initial public offerings

Abstract

We analyze abnormal returns of initial public offerings (IPOs) in different industries from 2007 to 2015 in the main Swedish markets. We find that IPOs outperform a sample of matching firms from the initial time period (first trading day) to the after-market period (a three-year period). Furthermore, adjusted initial returns and offer size of IPOs are positively related to their aftermarket performance. “Oil & Gas, Basic Materials & Utilities” and “Health care” are the two best performing sectors and they are the only two sectors that significantly outperform “Industrials”, with the latter being the worst performing sector.