ABSTRACT
Initial public offerings (IPOs) have been extensively researched, and no aspect has received more academic attention than the processes of pricing them. In the US, one might note the work by Scholes (1972), Ibbotson (1975), Rock (1986), Tinic (1988) and many others. 1 In the UK, IPO pricing in the London (later the International) Stock Exchange was examined by Henderson (1950), by Merrett et al. (1964), then analysed by Davis et al. (1974). Dimson (1979) introduced rigorous examination of option elements, and Levis (1990) has profitably applied Rock’s asymmetric information analysis to UK data. Buckland et al. (1981), Buckland and Davis (1984, 1989, 1990a) have been consistently critical of the discounting revealed in UK pricing practice, particularly in terms of advisers’ pricing and the pricing of privatisation issues.
