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After studying this case, students must be able to explain the rationale for going public; identify the type of markets available for listing a company on Bursa Malaysia and explain the listing process; and analyse pre-IPO financial performance using trend analysis, comparative analysis and common-size analysis.

Uniutama Education and Consultancy Sdn. Bhd. (UECSB) in Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) was a company with strong financial performance and growth opportunities. In 2020, UECSB was planning for an initial public offering (IPO), whereby the company could offer shares to the public. This would allow UECSB to raise capital from public investors, and increase UECSB’s credibility and exposure. Therefore, Halim, who was the General Manager of UECSB, needed to decide whether or not UECSB should go for an IPO.

This case is more appropriate for final-year undergraduate students, particularly those majoring in Finance. This case is also suitable for postgraduate students, especially those enrolling in Master of Business Administration (MBA), Master of Business Management (MBM) and Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) programmes, and Executive Education programmes in Management.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 1: Accounting and Finance.

This paper aims to examine the impact of disclosure regulation on the levels of bias and accuracy in management earnings forecasts disclosed in the prospectuses of Malaysian initial public offering (IPO). Specifically, the authors investigated the two environments of regulation (mandatory versus voluntary) to draw some conclusions regarding the benefits of regulating disclosure of management earnings forecasts.

A sample of 111 Malaysian IPOs listing on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia from January 1, 2004 to February 29, 2012 was used. The paper uses both univariate and multivariate statistical analyses on this sample of IPOs.

The empirical results of these multivariate regressions indicated that disclosure regulation has positive and significant impact on the bias and accuracy of management earnings forecasts disclosed in IPO prospectus. In general, the study results suggest that using disclosure regulation to improve the quality of IPO earnings forecasts can be, to some extent, an effective strategy.

The findings of this study have important implications for regulators and investors. The findings can provide them some relevant insights on the improvements to the earnings forecasts accuracy and trends of the forecast (optimistic or pessimistic) after the change from mandatory to voluntary disclosure. Thus, the authorities may learn whether this change is an effective policy or whether the regime of mandatory disclosure was better for IPO companies and should be reversed.

This study is regarded as the first attempt to investigate the impact of reforms in disclosure regulation on the quality of management earnings forecasts of IPO prospectuses in a developing nation such as Malaysia. In spite of this, the paper focuses on a single country, and it contributes significant insights to the debate about the credibility of IPO management earnings forecasts.

Presently, one of the major governance issues faced by management and shareholders of organizations is the gender composition of the boards of directors and audit committees. This study aims to examine the impact of gender diversity in audit committees on the accuracy of management earnings forecasts disclosure in initial public offering (IPO) prospectuses.

The study sample comprises 190 Malaysian companies issuing IPOs that transformed into public companies during the period 2002-2012. Earnings forecasts accuracy (quality) is proxied by absolute forecast error and the study model is developed based on the frameworks of the signalling theory, the agency theory and the resource-dependence theory.

The study proposes that female directors introduce a set of specific features in the boardroom that serve to improve investor protection and efficient monitoring of management. However, findings reveal an insignificantly positive relationship between gender diversity in audit committees and absolute forecast error, which shows that more female directors in audit committees could translate into more errors and less accuracy in earnings forecasts.

Considering the recent regulatory developments that encourage the number of women on the board of directors, the findings obtained have significant implications for policymakers. The study findings can also be invaluable to investors, investment analysts, market players and researchers.

The composition of the board of directors and audit committees in terms of gender plays a significant role in the promotion of effective corporate governance practices. This study is one of the pioneering studies that examines the advantages of gender diversity in the board of directors. It is also the first study to extend IPO literature by investigating the role of gender diversity in audit committees in the enhancement of accurate management earnings forecasts included in the IPO prospectuses.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether proxies considered under ex ante uncertainty hold true under a fixed price mechanism structure. In particular, the study examines whether pre-initial public offering (IPO) financial performance, measured by Altman Z-score, can serve as a proxy for ex ante uncertainty or signalling in an IPO market where a fixed price mechanism is used to determine the offer price.

This study uses solely ex ante information available to prospective investors prior to the IPO to proxy for ex ante variables. It also applies a more sophisticated and robust approach using quantile regression (QR) technique in addition to ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. Applying the QR technique allows the study to produce estimates for the conditional quantiles of the distribution of IPO initial returns and address the violations of basic assumptions of the standard OLS technique.

The results show that for ex ante variables, such as IPORISK, company size, the Altman Z-score measure of pre-IPO performance, audit quality and the technology industry, are significantly related to IPO initial returns. However, the relationship differs across the conditional quantiles of the distribution of IPO initial returns, which would not have been recognised using standard OLS. However, the sign of the coefficients shown by some of these variables contradicts the ex ante uncertainty hypothesis assumption, but they are found to have predictive power in explaining IPO initial returns. These findings reveal unique characteristics of the IPO process and investors in Malaysia. Most importantly, the Altman Z-score is found to be significant in the lower and upper quantiles, but insignificant around the median quantile, which implies that Altman Z-score is important for IPOs with low and high initial returns.

These findings suggest that theoretical explanations of the ex ante uncertainty hypothesis cannot be generalised across financial markets, particularly in the Malaysian IPO market where fixed price offerings are common, and investors are risk averse, whereby they avoid risky IPOs, and prefer to take a small amount of returns against high risks. In addition, the composition of the companies in the market is not as large as the developed markets. This implies that the share price of the IPO may be sensitive to other disclosures in the prospectus, market sentiments or financial news. This study recommends the need for more empirical evidence for this purpose by including other important proxies of ex ante uncertainty, such as the use of IPO proceeds and risk factors that are disclosed in the prospectus to test whether the ex ante uncertainty hypothesis holds true in Malaysia.

This study fulfils the need for finding an appropriate theory that better explains IPO initial returns in the Asian IPO market by focussing exclusively on the pre-IPO information available in the prospectus. It also sheds light on important selected pre-listing information.

This study aims to investigate the effects of the intended use of initial public offerings (IPO) proceeds that is disclosed in the prospectus on IPO initial returns.

A sample of IPOs listed on Bursa Malaysia from 2005 to 2015 is used. The intended use of IPO proceeds is categorised into three uses, namely, growth opportunities, debt repayment and working capital. In addition to ordinary least squares regression, the study applies a more sophisticated and robust approach using the quantile regression technique.

The results show that the intended use of IPO proceeds for growth opportunities and working capital is positively associated with IPO initial returns, whereas debt repayment is negatively associated with IPO initial returns. When the intended use of IPO proceeds for growth opportunities is further expanded into capital expenditure (CAPEX) and research and development (R&D), the intended use of IPO proceeds for CAPEX is positively associated with IPO initial returns, whereas R&D is negatively associated with IPO initial returns.

These findings suggest that intended use of IPO proceeds provides useful information about IPO initial returns and investors can use this information as guidance to make informed decisions. In addition, regulatory authorities should pay close attention to the amount allocated to each intended use of IPO proceeds as this may play a critical role in the success of a company and the economy.

This study gives new empirical evidence on the desire and motivations of IPO and the usefulness of designated use of IPO proceeds disclosed in the prospectus in explaining IPO initial returns.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between the community and environment disclosures and the long-run share price performance of Malaysian initial public offering (IPO) companies.

This study used secondary data through the content analysis of the annual reports and DataStream of 115 sampled IPOs listed on Bursa Malaysia from 2007 to 2015. The present study incorporated weighted least squares and quantile least squares to evaluate the relationship between the community and environment disclosures and IPO performance.

The results show a positive and significant relationship between the extent and quality of community disclosures and IPO performance; while the extent and quality of environment disclosures have a negative and positive relationship, respectively, with IPO performance. These results suggest that community and environmental activities can be considered an effort to enhance Malaysian IPOs.

These results suggest that Malaysian IPO companies should be involved consistently in corporate social responsibility disclosure, i.e. community and environmental activities, as they have a significant impact on the performance of Malaysian IPOs. The findings can facilitate financial institutions and regulatory agencies in driving companies to be more responsible regarding community and environmental disclosures.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study provides new insights into the relationship between the community and environment disclosures and the performance of Malaysian IPO companies.

The paper aims to assess the performance of investors that are discriminated based on their risk-appetite who intend to invest in listed Sharia-compliant (SC) stocks to maximize their portfolios’ wealth through two different models (i.e. regime-switching [RS] and non-RS).

Study period (i.e. November 18, 2015–May 31, 2019), well described in two distinct volatility-related bull-regime and bear-regime, is divided into in-sample and out-sample where Rs. 1.00 is invested on the out-sample start date. Each investor’s cumulated wealth forecasted through different models is checked daily throughout the out-sample period, and then, analyzed based on investors’ cumulated ending wealth, and Sharpe ratio (SR) is obtained through different models.

The ending wealth of risk-averse and risk-neutral investors obtained through RS-models increased 5.27 times while that of risk-taker investors increased 5.13 times. However, ending wealth obtained through non-RS models remained far low. The SR remained unchanged among investors. However, the SR of RS models (i.e. 1.0867) is higher than that of non-RS models (i.e. 0.8681). Overall, RS model-based investments outperformed in all categories of investors.

The study helps the investor during the process of portfolio diversification in their asset(s) selection and limited capital apportionment decisions. It also helps market regulators in formulating regulations and the policymakers in articulating/implementing policies that may protect the stakeholders form consequent disasters, particularly when market switches regimes.

The uniqueness stems from its focus on risk-appetite discriminated investors’ portfolio wealth maximization issue examined through technical analysis using two completely distinct models in the emerging market’s listed SC stocks.

This paper examines the relationship between the extent and quality of the four dimensions of corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) namely community, environment, workplace and marketplace with the long-run share price performance of Malaysian initial public offering (IPO) companies.

This study utilised secondary data by the content analysis of the annual reports and Datastream of 115 IPOs listed from 2007 to 2015 in Malaysia. The IPO’s performance was determined by calculating the return measures under the equally weighted and value-weighted schemes of the mean abnormal returns and buy-and-hold abnormal returns covering the three years post-listing using the event-time approach.

The findings demonstrate that Malaysian IPOs experience substantial overperformance and underperformance when both the IPO performance measures are benchmarked against the matched companies and market. The results indicated that the extent and quality of the community and environment CSRD dimensions are positively and significantly correlated to the IPO’s performance. On the other hand, the extent and quality of the workplace and marketplace CSRD dimensions are negatively and significantly correlated to the IPO performance.

Malaysian regulators could benefit from these findings in their endeavour to carry out a reform process on CSRD to improve its quality. The results of this study are important to investors, regulators, non-government organisations, communities and policymakers. They also enhance the understanding of companies about the importance of disclosing greater CSR information to improve their performance and profitability.

To the researchers' best knowledge, this study provides new insights into the association between CSRD and the performance of Malaysian IPO companies, which is considered important.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether or not the presence of female directors at the time of an initial public offering (IPO) can be considered as a signal of IPO quality.

A sample of 220 Malaysian IPOs over the period of 2005–2015 was used. This study employed the mean regression technique (ordinary least squares and White’s heteroskedasticity-consistent standard errors) and the median regression technique (quantile regression) to examine the signalling power of female directors on the board at the time of an IPO.

The results show that the presence and proportion of female directors at the time of the IPO have negative effects on IPO initial returns (IR). The negative effects occur at both the conditional mean and the dispersion of IPO IR. These results are robust to endogeneity bias.

The findings of this study suggest that female directors on the board at the time of an IPO can be considered as a desirable signal of IPO quality. As a result, IPO issuers can consider signalling the quality of their IPOs by having female directors on their boards. Likewise, market participants can use female directors as an instrument to value an IPO.

Studies on the impact of female directors on the board have largely been centred on established companies. Thus, this study contributes to the literature by examining the signalling role of women at the time of an IPO, which is considered as a significant milestone in the lifecycle of a company.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the differences in men and women, such as risk aversion in decision making, can influence the amount of capital that the board of directors can allocate for investment opportunities.

This study sampled 212 IPOs over the period of 2005–2015 and employed the OLS and the quantile regression techniques to examine the impact of female directors on capital allocation.

The results show that women on corporate boards have a positive influence on the amount of capital an IPO company can allocate for investment opportunities. These findings suggest that the investment strategies of women in an emerging financial market, like Malaysia, may differ from women in other financial markets.

The presence of women on corporate boards plays an important role in board involvement in a company’s strategic decision at the time of the IPO. Therefore, regulators and IPO issuers should pay close attention to the corporate governance structure of a company at the time of an IPO. In addition, investors and other stakeholders of a company may consider women on corporate boards as an important factor in financing and investment decisions.

Despite several studies that have examined the influence of women on corporate boards on corporate outcomes, globally, the presence of women on corporate boards and their influence on corporate decision-making related to allocation of capital to investment opportunities, have not been fully explored in the IPO literature.