Does Private Equity Investment Work as a Quality Certification for IPOs in Brazil?

Abstract

Brazil faced an IPO wave in the last four years, and many Private Equity deals went public. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether private equity backed IPOs performed better in the long run than non-private equity backed firms. We examined the one year cumulative abnormal returns of 53 Brazilian IPOs from January 2004 to February 2007. Our results provide evidences that PE investment works as a quality certification for IPOs in Brazil. One possible interpretation is that Brazilian PE funds have a value creation role in the portfolio companies, preparing them better for public market.