Determinants of oversubscription of SME IPOs in India: evidence from quantile regression

The study aims to measure the subscription level and examine the determinants of oversubscription of small and medium enterprise (SME) initial public offerings (IPOs) in India.

The study employs cross sectional data to analyze 403 SME IPOs issued from Feb 2012 to May 2018 and listed on Bombay Stock Exchange's small and medium enterprise (BSE SME) platform and National Stock Exchange (NSE) EMERGE to investigate the determinants of oversubscription of SME IPOs. Hence, the study makes use of ordinary least square regression and quantile regression to test the hypotheses formulated for the determinants of oversubscription.

The main findings unveil that while issue price, pricing mechanism, listing delay negatively influence oversubscription; firm size, underwriter reputation, hot market and underpricing have been divulged to positively influence oversubscription. However, issue size emerged out to be significant in quantile regression at 25th, 50th and 75th quantiles.

The present study is confined to limited number of variables in understanding the factors impacting oversubscription. Future studies could include macroeconomic variables like gross domestic product (GDP), inflation rate, industry specific variable, i.e. technology/nontechnology industry, financial/nonfinancial industry for better understanding. Cross country analysis is suggested in future studies to validate the findings of current study. Future studies are advised to conduct the study examining the factors affecting oversubscription in light of COVID-19 pandemic.

The findings of the present study offer implications to academicians, investors, investment advisors and regulators. It provides useful insights to researchers by listing the factors that contribute to variation in subscription levels in emerging economy like India thereby, paving the way for future researches in SME IPOs in countries with different institutional settings. For investors, the study provides additional and novel information useful for IPO valuation and informed investment decisions. In addition, the findings put investment advisors in better place to guide potential investors regarding investment in good quality SME stocks (i.e. highly subscribed stocks) in more informative manner. Last but not the least, as this study would assist the regulators in handling future IPOs in a way that augments the chances of success of SME IPOs.

This study is a novel contribution in widening the IPO literature by examining the relationship between pre-IPO firm actions like issue price, pricing mechanism, issue size, firm size, listing delay, underwriter reputation, hot market, underpricing and oversubscription in unexplored settings of Indian SME IPOs.