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IPO Bubble Collusion: A Classroom Exercise

IPO Bubble Collusion: A Classroom Exercise. Walker, Hull, and Kwak. Introduction. Dotcom IPO bubble, 1997 to 2001 IPO prices skyrocketed Underwriters and their preferred customers Reaped record profits Alleged collusion Other investors, recorded significant losses

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IPO Bubble Collusion: A Classroom Exercise

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  1. IPO Bubble Collusion:A Classroom Exercise Walker, Hull, and Kwak

  2. Introduction • Dotcom IPO bubble, 1997 to 2001 • IPO prices skyrocketed • Underwriters and their preferred customers • Reaped record profits • Alleged collusion • Other investors, recorded significant losses • Stock prices nosedived after they acquired shares • Collusion has been blamed

  3. Introduction • Classroom exercise • Students to experience being investors • Some experience the profits associated with being preferred customers • preferred customers get the initial allocation of IPO shares • Others endure the frustration of unsuccessfully attempting to purchase the “hot” IPO during the early stages of the offering • after acquiring shares at inflated prices • realization that the stock they purchased is worth only a fraction of its purchase price. • Dotcom firms had small (or negative) profit levels, little cash, only modest revenues and inflated expectations about future performance.

  4. Learning Objectives • Matching of buyers and sellers • Reaction to shortages and surpluses • Calculate profits • Collusion winners and losers • Risks taken market fervor influences decision making • Role of investor’s expectations • Ethical responsibility

  5. Design and Implementation • Courses: • Finance and Economics • Collusion or issuance process • Introduction of the exercise • Students are placed in groups • Groups whose main task is to buy IPO shares will be either preferred or nonpreferred customers. • The underwriter (charged with selling the IPO shares) who is also the market maker.

  6. Design and Implementation • Realistic • Rounded values from the IPO bubble • For example • Gross amount raised. • Paper = $60 million • Median from April – July 2000 = $63 million • Fee charged to preferred customers • Paper = 20% • Copeland and Lucie (2001) = 10% – 50%

  7. Design and Implementation • Gross amount raised. • Paper = $60 million • Median from April – July 2000 = $63 million • Fee charged to preferred customers • Paper = 20% • Copeland and Lucie (2001) = 10% – 50%

  8. Design and Implementation • Stock price increase • Paper = $10 to $30 for the first round of bidding • 1999 = 117 IPOs that at least doubled in price before the end of the first day of trading • After bubble = no IPOs were doubling in price.

  9. Design and Implementation • Collusion • “laddering” schemes • tasks assigned to the preferred customer groups

  10. Williams (2000) • “‛In order for certain Robertson Stephens customers to receive IPO share allocations, the customers were required to agree to buy more shares of that same issuer's common stock in the aftermarket,’ the lawsuits claim. Brokers ‘would often denote the price that the customers would have to pay in the aftermarket, and these prices would escalate upward in a plan known as laddering,’ the suits allege.”

  11. Variations • Condensing the number of groups • Stock allocation methods • sealed or open bids • auction or random drawing • Inform the class that there are preferred customers

  12. Expectations in Classroom • Initial prearranged buying and selling • Preferred customers start bailing out • Prices should begin to decline • Price is free to eventually settle at an equilibrium price driven by informed investors

  13. Experiences • Learning outcomes witnessed • the winners and losers of collusion, • the risks taken when investing without proper analysis • the ethical dilemmas associated with an IPO bubble

  14. Winners / Losers • “... the preferred customers have an edge on your regular stock buyers. It made it easy for the preferred buyers to make a lot of profits in that situation and the common buyer just got the leftovers.” • “Collusion between two parties allows the two colluding entities to generate profits and people who jump on the bandwagon to lose ...”

  15. Risks taken • “… do your studying before you buy a stock, to see what its worth.” • “…show how it is easy to lose money investing.” • “Collusion definitely existed during the IPO bubble; or else the stock prices wouldn’t have gotten so out of hand on worthless stock.”

  16. Ethical • “We (FCWM) were expected to provide our services in the best interest of BanzerTech, but we also wanted our preferred clients to make money. Did we behave ethically? There are arguments both for and against this. First, some would say we did perform ethically because we are a business and are out to make a profit. We needed to not only provide services for BanzerTech but needed to make money for our preferred clients by giving them top priority during trades. Some would say we behaved unethically because there was no value added to the society from our transactions. We simply shifted money from pockets of clients to our preferred clients.”

  17. Ethics • “… there was sort of a false interest in BanzerTech since FCWM required you to buy an extra amount after the initial purchase. For this reason, I think the FCWM performed somewhat unethically.”

  18. Ethics • “…it is harder to tell if during the actual IPO bubble collusion occurred. I would say to some degree it was present but at the same time irrational behavior by investors played a major role. By setting up situations where the price of worthless stock would be driven up in an attempt to make top clients major money, I would without a doubt say that FCWM acted unethically.”

  19. Instructor’s Learning • Expectations: • stock market price to increase to around $55−$60 • then start its descent to around $10 per share. • Actual results: • Stock price increased to around $70 a share before falling. • Stock price did not decline linearly (as we expected) but at times begin to increase before once again dropping. • Students believe on a “roll.” • Group had already made over $100 million in profits and they could afford to lose a little money.

  20. Related Literature • Sherman (2006) • Book building produces a conflict of interest allowing underwriters to favor their regular customers in their allocation of IPO shares. • Hull, Kerchner, Kwak and Walker (2005) • July 1, 2000 through September 30, 2000, it was possible for investment bankers and preferred clients to have made, on average, over half as much money as that raised by the firms undergoing IPOs.

  21. Related Literature • Hiler (2002) • Internet bubble profits could not last long because they were based on internet advertising revenues that followed a pyramid scheme. • FTC’s safeguards • 10 customer rule (advertising sales to non-internet customers) • 70% rule (internet ads actually sold a real product for a company), • buyback rule (must buy-back unused advertising inventory)

  22. Related Literature • Biais and Faugeron-Crouzet (2002) • Auction method can also allow for collusion by investors. They state: “Dutch auctions can also lead to inefficiencies, to the extent that they are conducive to tacit collusion by investors. The Book Building ... can lead to optimal information elicitation and price discovery.” • Sherman (2006) • The benefit of the book building process over auctions in reducing the risk by controlling the number of investors involved. She suggests that multiple bidders elevate the risks by leading to inaccurate pricing information, significant aftermarket volatility, and unpredictable bidder participation.

  23. Related Literature • Chowdhry, Bhagwan and Sherman (1996) • Price leaks before the issue of an IPO will result in either an oversubscription (if the price is set too low) or the issue will fail (if the stock is set too high). • Book building process is better equipped to underprice an issue so as to limit the chance of failure.

  24. Some Numbers to Contemplate(from most recent exercise) • BanzerTech Inc. raised $76,000,000 through its IPO. • FCWM, Inc. made $114,350,000 in total fees. • $4,000,000 in selling fees • $110,350,000 in transaction fees (<= mostly kickback). • Groups 1─3 (preferred customers) made $195,850,000 • Groups 4─9 (nonpreferred customers) lost $266,200,000 • Total profits (losses) of investors was –$70,350,000 • Total fees paid by investors was $110,350,000 • mostly kickback paid by preferred customers in Groups 1–3 • Investor gains without fees would have been $40,000,000

  25. Conclusion • Extension • IPO offering using auctions. • Allows students to compare the differences between auctions and the book-building process in terms of their strengths and weaknesses

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