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The Structure of External Financing Costs and the Economies of Scale View: New Evidence from Seasoned Equity Offerings in Germany
Author(s) -
Buhner Thomas,
Kaserer Christophe
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
european financial management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.311
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1468-036X
pISSN - 1354-7798
DOI - 10.1111/1468-036x.00191
Subject(s) - underwriting , economies of scale , cost of equity , equity (law) , economics , monetary economics , float (project management) , cash , fixed cost , cost of capital , finance , german , scale (ratio) , sample (material) , marginal cost , business , market economy , microeconomics , incentive , chemistry , physics , management , archaeology , chromatography , quantum mechanics , political science , law , history
This paper is focused on the cost of raising equity capital in Germany. In the spirit of AltinkiliÇ and Hansen (2000) it challenges the conventional wisdom that flotation costs are characterised by economies of scale. For a sample of 120 SEOs on the German capital market over the years 1993–98 it is found that average total flotation costs amount to 1.61% of gross proceeds, while average underwriting fees are about 1.32%. Moreover, it turns out that flotation costs rise the larger the free float of the company is and the larger the share of stocks offered within a firm commitment cash offering is. As far as the economies of scale view is concerned, we do not find clear evidence in favour of decreasing marginal flotation costs. Moreover, fixed costs seem not to be very high in that they account on average for not more than 14–24% of total flotation costs or total underwriting fees, respectively.