Survival of the Malaysian initial public offerings

Abstract

This study addresses the extent to which Malaysian public listed firms survive after the IPO. The result reports that 7.72% of Malaysian IPOs were delisted from the market after five years, which is lower than the delisting rate reported in previous studies in developed markets. The delisting rate increased to 13.2% after seven years of listing. Further investigation shows that an unsatisfactory financial condition is the primary factor of failure. Comparison of the survival rate between the Main Market and the ACE market reveals that the cumulative survival rates over one through seven years after the IPO are consistently higher for the Main Market IPOs than the ACE Market IPOs, suggesting that the ACE Market IPOs have a higher probability to be delisted from the Market compared with the Main Market IPOs.