Stock Price Reactions To Debt Initial Public Offering Announcements

Abstract

We examine the valuation effect of initial public debt offers on issuing firms common stock for the period 1970 to 2010. In contrast to findings for seasoned debt offerings, we find a statistically significant cumulative abnormal return of -0.24 percent over the three-day announcement period for the overall sample of 1,207 debt IPOs. Consistent with the prediction of the adverse selection model of Myers and Majluf (1984), the significant negative valuation effect of debt IPOs is only associated with risky issues that are assigned a high-yield bond rating. The announcements of low-risk investment grade debt IPO issues are associated with insignificant positive stock price reaction. In addition to the certifying effect of investment grade rating, the market also reacts favorably to successful debt IPOs issued under challenging conditions.