Grow or Go? The Expiration of IPO Lockups in Germany

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject Economics - Finance, grade: 1.0, University of Frankfurt (Main) (Finance), language: English, abstract: In this study I examine the case of lockup period expirations for 142 IPOs in Germany between 2000 and 2019. I find significant abnormal returns around the expiration date of lockup periods during which existing shareholders are prevented from selling their shares. Both, abnormal returns and abnormal trading volumes around the unlock day are much larger for firms financed by venture capital or private equity. These findings are robust to different market models and are not due to market microstructure effects. When examining the cause for the observed abnormal returns abnormal trading volume and company size become prominent.