The World Cup in Football and the US IPO Market

56 Pages Posted: 6 Apr 2023

See all articles by Sturla Lyngnes Fjesme

Sturla Lyngnes Fjesme

Oslo Business School

Jin Roc Lv

Australian National University (ANU)

Chander Shekhar

University of Melbourne; Financial Research Network (FIRN)

Date Written: March 24, 2023

Abstract

We document that US IPOs that take place during a world cup in football (soccer), compared to IPOs before or after, exhibit 9% lower underpricing and 6% lower price adjustment. IPOs during world cups receive less attention from foreign investors and exhibit significantly higher long-run returns. Our results are robust to excluding the IPO bubble period of 1999 and 2000, including only listings during summer months, controlling for overall market sentiment and market conditions, and to using various matched samples of non-world cup IPOs. Firm characteristics of world cup IPOs are indistinguishable from those of non-world cup IPOs, suggesting that selection is not driving the results. Consistent with prior studies showing that world cups affect market sentiment, we show that this extends to US IPOs, where lower sentiment, driven by foreign investors, leads to reduced investor attention and lower valuations.

Keywords: FIFA World Cup; Sport Sentiment; IPO; Underpricing

JEL Classification: F21, G14

Suggested Citation

Fjesme, Sturla Lyngnes and Lv, Jin Roc and Shekhar, Chander, The World Cup in Football and the US IPO Market (March 24, 2023). Journal of Corporate Finance, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4398789 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4398789

Sturla Lyngnes Fjesme (Contact Author)

Oslo Business School ( email )

P.O. Box 4
Oslo, 0130
Norway

HOME PAGE: http://sturlafjesme.com/

Jin Roc Lv

Australian National University (ANU) ( email )

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601
Australia

Chander Shekhar

University of Melbourne ( email )

185 Pelham Street
Carlton, Victoria 3053
Australia

Financial Research Network (FIRN) ( email )

C/- University of Queensland Business School
St Lucia, 4071 Brisbane
Queensland
Australia

HOME PAGE: http://www.firn.org.au

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