The Underpricing of Spanish REITs When Going Public

Abstract

This study analyses underpricing in a sample of 41 Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) from the Spanish market between November 2013 and January 2019. The results show a significant underpricing on the initial-day (either when we compute raw or market-adjusted initial returns) concentrated in the primary market. Besides, price adjustment continues until the third day as we find significant raw and market-adjusted buy-and-hold returns. This underpricing is not accounted for by the theories of information asymmetry but instead by some signalling theories related to capital structure, by the pre-listing stock market conditions and by the peculiarities of the market analysed.