On the Determinants of the Going Public Decision in Spain

Though the going public decision has been addressed by several theories, empirical research is particularly scarce to European countries. This is the first research in the Spanish market that investigates ex ante and ex post characteristics of IPO firms, using a large database of private held firms that potentially may go public. Some of our results are consistent with previous studies. Our evidence suggests that firms that go public are young firms with large capital expenditures previously to the IPO. However, a firm's need to finance activity is not the main motive to go public, but to achieve the proper conditions to rebalance firm's economic and financial structure. Our results are consistent with the portfolio rebalancing motive and the hypothesis of windows of opportunity to go public.