Standardy ładu korporacyjnego jako czynnik determinujący wybór miejsca zagranicznego debiutu giełdowego na przykładzie spółek ukraińskich

The aim of this paper is to identify the prevailing pattern of foreign IPO, recognize the main target markets and determine whether the standards of corporate governance can play an important role in the selection of capital market, on the example of Ukrainian companies that have put their shares to the organized trading abroad in 2005–2012. Ukrainian debuts were always preceded by the reincorporation in third party countries because of restrictive laws on the foreign offers carried out from Ukraine and more efficient tax regulations abroad. Foreign IPOs were associated with the need to operate in an environment of significantly higher CG standards, common in the EU – countries. An overview of Ukrainian companies’ foreign IPO’s has driven the authors to focus on two markets, comparable to each other during the period in terms of general characteristics (WSE and AIM). Most companies chose between WSE and AIM. In favour of WSE spoke: the size of the market, the possibility of placing volume as well as lower foreign IPO premium, which can be attributed to higher CG standards resulting from a wider range of regulations than the alternative market and the presence of a code of good practice. AIM attracted the companies with lower requirements for CG. The cost of raising capital on both markets remained at a similar level. The short life of half of the Ukrainian issuers on AIM and the constant presence of the newcomers from the years 2005–2012 on the WSE and the results of the independent CG – rankings, confirmed the authors’ hypothesis that the choice of the destination market with a higher standard of corporate governance was made by companies seriously thinking about their presence on the capital market further in the future. Therefore, it can be concluded that the higher CG standards on the WSE have played a positive role in the selection of debuting companies.