Information and self-selection in the PIPE market

Abstract

PIPEs (Private Investments in Public Equity) are unique in that they are negotiated privately between sophisticated investors and the public firm. As a result, the issue price deviates from the firm's stock price, often resulting in a substantial PIPE discount. However, only a limited set of firms issues equity at such a discount. PIPE issuers tend to be low quality, less transparent firms that cannot raise capital through traditional sources. As indicators of this quality, I examine the firm's accruals and audit quality in the year of its PIPE issuance. I find that the PIPE discount is more strongly associated with audit quality, and that firms with low quality auditors are issued at a 5% discount relative to comparable firms with high quality auditors. Much of this discount is due to self-selection, suggesting that higher quality PIPE issuers select high quality auditors.