CNN Money: Stop sweating the tech IPO 'drought', March 22, 2013

.....
Lise Buyer of Class V Group, for example, says that many issuers postponed Q4 2012 or Q1 2013 offerings due to concerns over how the public markets would react to both the presidential election and fiscal cliff negotiations -- worries reflected in a late December volatility index spike. The fiscal cliff situation was revolved in early January, but it takes several months for company's to restart their IPO processes. "Most of those companies still plan to go out," Buyer says. "So there's an awful lot in the pipeline." .... read more on CNN Money

Keywords: IPO, IPO activity, Tech, Venture Capital, Big Data, Online Processing

Abstract:

"We evaluate the relation between firm leverage and taxation of corporate income using a dataset of mostly unlisted European corporations, highly representative of medium-sized and large firms. We use a correlated random effect approach in order to take into account unobserved heterogeneity and to assess the contribution of cross-sectional variation of the regressors. We also apply quantile regressions to evaluate a possible differential impact of taxation on leverage across firms. Our results suggest that corporate income taxation is positively related to leverage and explains part of the cross-country variability, showing a stronger effect for less levered firms. In accordance with the theory of the debt tax shield, the relation between debt and taxation is stronger for highly profitable firms. These findings are robust to the inclusion of different measures of the financial development and characteristics of the legal system of the country where firms are located."

Keywords: Firm Leverage, Leverage, Corporate Taxes, Capital Structure

Abstract:

"This paper studies the relation between the going public decision and employment growth experienced by IPO firms. We find that a typical IPO firm in our sample hires twice more employees around its IPO than during its life as a private firm. The number of employees increases by 31% during the two-year period around the IPO. Evidence shows that the most likely channel through which IPO firms increase their employment levels is the relaxation of their financial constraints, allowing firms to access both equity and debt markets resulting in better funding of their growth opportunities and an increase of the firm’s human capital. We also examine the relation between employment growth and firm performance: IPO firms with greater employment growth exhibit better performance and lower delisting probability. Overall, these results highlight the importance of the IPO event and access to public capital markets for job creation by US firms." Source: SSRN

Keywords: Initial Public Offering, IPO, Employment

The Economist: Desperately seeking yield Investors are gorging on corporate bonds. Is an asset bubble being inflated? Nov. 10, 2012

Keywords: Corporate Finance, Corporate Bonds

Abstract:

"This paper argues that self-fulfilling beliefs in credit conditions can generate endoge- nously persistent business cycle dynamics. We develop a tractable dynamic general equi- librium model in which heterogeneous firms face idiosyncratic productivity shocks. Capital from less productive firms is lent to more productive ones in the form of credit secured by collateral and also as unsecured credit based on reputation. A dynamic complemen- tarity between current and future credit constraints permits uncorrelated sunspot shocks to trigger persistent aggregate fluctuations in debt, factor productivity and output. In a calibrated version we compare the features of sunspot cycles with those generated by shocks to economic fundamentals."

Keywords: Self-Fulfilling Beliefs, Credit Cycle

Source: Horan Capital Advisors: Strong Stock Buyback Activity in Q2, Sept. 22, 2012

Keywords: Corporate Earnings, Dividends, Share Buy Backs

Related:

Bloomberg: Grantham Calls Corporate Profits Freakish, Nov. 28, 2012

Sept. 24, 2012

Keywords: Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate Finance, M&A Cycles

.... "Standard & Poor's estimates that companies in Europe, the US and the major Asian economies require a combination of refinancing and new money to fund growth over the next four years of between $43 trillion and $46 trillion. The wall of maturing debt is unprecedented, raising the prospect of further, extreme difficulties in credit markets."

read about it in The Telegraph

Keywords: Corporate Debt, Corporate Refinancing