Finance and Economics Discussion Series

Going Public Abroad

Cecilia Caglio, Kathleen Weiss Hanley, and Jennifer Marietta-Westberg
2013-68

Abstract: This paper examines the decision to go public abroad using a sample of 17,808 IPOs. Although only 6% of initial public offerings are offered abroad, these represent approximately 25% of total IPO proceeds. We find that alleviating informational frictions in order to obtain greater offering proceeds is an important determinant of the decision to go public abroad. Foreign and global IPOs originate from countries with significantly fewer recent IPOs in the same industry, less developed capital markets, and lower disclosure standards. Contrary to assumptions in prior research, we also show that the determinants of whether to go public abroad or to go public at home and cross-list later are not similar. In addition, we find that the preferences for going public in certain foreign markets have changed over time and the factors that impact the choice of listing market are not consistent across all countries.

Keywords: IPO, cross listing