Venture Capitalist Participation and the Performance of IPO Firms

This thesis investigates whether venture capitalists in Europe have a positive impact on the operating and long-run market performance of firms they bring public. To examine this issue a hand-collected international data set of venture- and non venture-backed IPOs at the French Nouveau Marché, German Neuer Markt, and British techMARK dating from 1996 to 1999 is used. The findings suggest that there are substantial variations in the experience and sophistication of venture capitalists. Moreover, venture-backed IPOs do not generally outperform non venture-backed issues, irrespective of the applied performance measure. Instead, merely the more experienced international venture capitalists appear to have positive effects on both the operating and market performance of portfolio firms. The overall results are interpreted as evidence for the heterogeneity of venture capitalists operating in the European market.

Autorentext
The Author: Georg Rindermann studied Business Administrations at the University of Frankfurt, and the University of Paris IX Dauphine, before joining the Department of International Business at the University of Münster as a Ph.D. candidate. He was a fellow of the Franco-German College for Higher Education, founded by the French and German Ministries, and visiting doctoral student at the School of Business, University of Alberta. In 2003 the author received his doctoral degree from the University of Münster.

Inhalt

Contents: Venture Capital in Europe - IPOs - Capital and Ownership Structure - Operating and Market Performance - Comparative Financial Systems and Institutions.