Voluntary disclosure of prospective financial information in IPO prospectuses

Abstract

This study examines the level of disclosure of prospective financial information in prospectuses for initial public offerings (IPOs) of equity securities by New Zealand companies from 1987 to 2001. Data for this research were extracted from 72 prospectuses that had been issued by companies making an initial public offering during this period.

Level of disclosure is measured by an unweighted disclosure index, which is based on the amount of prospective financial information disclosed in prospectuses. Financial Reporting Standard No. 29 (FRS-29), which guides the preparation and presentation of prospective financial information, is used as a benchmark. Several variables, namely, company size, leverage, managerial ownership, profitability, first day trading premium, number of IPOs, forecast accuracy and forecast bias that may be associated with the level of disclosure, are examined. Both univariate and multivariate analyses are conducted to explore the relationship between the level of disclosure and the independent variables.

On average, companies disclose four recommended items in the statement of prospective financial performance, five recommended items in the statement of prospective financial position and four recommended items in the statement of prospective cash flows. Compared with the sixteen items for the three statements recommended by FRS-29, companies, on average, disclose 75% of the recommended items of prospective financial information in their prospectuses.

Levels of disclosure of prospective financial information are further categorised into three groups, namely, total disclosure items recommended by FRS-29 (TSR), total disclosure items not recommended by FRS-29 (TSV) and overall disclosure items recommended and not recommended by FRS-29 (TSRV) and then investigated for significant relationships. The results from the univariate analyses show that the disclosure level of prospective financial information, measured by total disclosure items recommended by FRS-29, is significantly related to managerial ownership, number of IPOs and forecast accuracy. When level of disclosure is measured by items not recommended by FRS-29, only company size is significantly related to level of disclosure. When level of disclosure is measured by overall disclosure items, both recommended and not recommended by FRS-29, company size and number of IPOs are significantly related to level of disclosure.

The results from the multivariate analyses show that level of disclosure, measured by total disclosure items recommended by FRS-29, is related to company size, number of IPOs, forecast accuracy and listing status. When level of disclosure is measured by the total items not recommended by FRS-29, only the number of IPOs is marginally significantly related to level of disclosure. When measuring level of disclosure by the overall disclosure of items recommended and not recommended by FRS-29, only the number of IPOs is significantly related to level of disclosure.