The Price Effects of Rights Offerings
In the theoretical literature of finance, it has been assumed for some time that capital markets are efficient, with security prices reflecting all available information [10]. One purpose of this paper is to consider market efficiency in the context of rights offerings. It has recently been suggested, for example, that rights offerings afford positive abnormal returns [17, 18]. This view was immediately countered by the comment that the number of rights issued, and inversely the issue price, cannot affect the market value of the total exrights equity market [21, p. 44]. No empirical evidence was offered on either side, however.