Global Shipping IPOs Performance

We analyze the short and long-run price performance of 143Global Shipping IPOs listed during the 1984-2007 period in major Stock Exchanges computing buy and hold abnormal returns (BHAR) and cumulative abnormal returns (CAR). We find average underpricing for shipping IPOs is 17.69%. The light underpricing is positively related to the age of the firm, the reputation of the stock exchange they reach listing and the market condition of the period they go public and negatively related to the reputation of the underwriters. In the long-run, Shipping IPOs underperform after five months holding period. Specifically using the buy-and hold returns as a measurement for long-run performance, we find that investors who buy immediately after listing and hold shares for three years will make a loss of 15.72%. The survey suggests that global shipping industry surprises us regarding the maturity in the behavior of its investors