The Investor's Guide to IPOs

Jacket text for The Investor's Guide to IPOs

One of the biggest casualties of the aftermath of the dot com bubble was the IPO market. The early part of this century saw minimal IPO activity all over the world especially in western stock markets such as those of the UK and the US. However, for the last two or three years both firms considering an IPO and potential investors in those firms are back in business.

'The Investor's Guide to IPOs' is primarily written to benefit investors who wish to gain an in-depth understanding of the IPO market and to profit from investing in this market. The main aim of the book is to provide information on some fundamental questions related to investment in IPO markets such as how to pick up a good IPO investment and when is a good time to sell IPO shares.

The book not only covers issues such as how to make an investment in the IPO market, it also throws light on what happens once an investment has been made.

Chapter headings for The Investor's Guide to IPOs

Background
This chapter covers some basic information on going public such as the life cycle of companies and why and when companies go public. It also discusses the regulatory and administrative history of IPOs at the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and how companies prepare the way for an IPO. The last part of the chapter discusses some recently conducted hot IPOs.

Mechanics of an IPO
This chapter looks at the dynamics of an IPO such as the different methods by which a firm can do an IPO on the LSE and their implications for potential investors. The readers will find information on how IPOs are priced, how to apply for shares and how share allocations are made in practice. Surprisingly, not everything is fair and completely transparent in the IPO world.

Analysis of the performance of the IPOs
This chapter looks at what happens once a company successfully lists on the stock market. When investors buy shares in an IPO firm, they expect healthy profits from their investment. Are their profits really healthy? What happens if the investors decide not to sell their shares in the immediate after-market but to hold on to their investments for a longer period of time? Will the IPO firm survive long enough to provide a good return on investment? Questions like these are answered in this chapter using both the historic and current data on LSE IPOs.

Investing in IPOs
This chapter provides tips on how to find information on firms planning an IPO, how to read an IPO prospectus to form an opinion on the quality of the firm and how to identify good IPO investments and filter out the bad ones.

About Arif Khurshed

Arif Khurshed completed his PhD from ICMA Centre, University of Reading in 1999 and joined Manchester Business School (MBS), University of Manchester, as a post-doctoral research associate. Presently he is a senior lecturer in the Division of Accounting & Finance, MBS. Arif has taught corporate finance for more than 10 years and has been an active researcher in the field of initial public offerings (IPOs), institutional investments, and corporate governance. He has published his research in several finance journals and has contributed many book chapters. His research has been covered by the Investors Chronicle, the UK press (The Times) and the Thai press (The Nation). Arif has been an external consultant to the UK stock market regulator, The Financial Services Authority (FSA). The Investor's Guide to IPOs is his first book.

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