Graduation Year

2016

Date of Submission

11-2015

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Economics

Reader 1

Janet Smith

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© 2015 Gabriel A Ayala

Abstract

In 1998, the Philippines introduced book-building pricing mechanisms for Initial Public Offerings. Almost all capital raised through IPOs in the Philippines is done using a book-building pricing method, however a significant number of IPOs still occur using non-book-building methods. Understanding why book-building has become the dominant pricing mechanism but yet non-book-building methods still survive is the aim of this paper. I find that unlike other countries where the introduction of book-building leads to higher total issue costs for individual issuers and unlike theory which suggests the increased effort of book-building should come with increased costs, IPOs that use book-built pricing in the Philippines actually have a lower total issue cost as a percentage of the total issue size compared to issuers who use non-book-building methods. This being the case, explaining why non-book-built IPOs still occur is even more interesting. I find that the large variance in size and the low volume of IPOs in the Philippines creates a bifurcated market where it is uneconomical for underwriters to use book-building to service small firms who want to IPO. The harder phenomenon to explain is the choice by firms who are large enough to book-build to use non-book-built methods. I suggest that the developing sophistication of the local market as well as the relationship driven aspect of business in the Philippines are two possible explanations.

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