The effect of an audit firm's brand on security pricing

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the demand for high quality auditors and the effect of their brand names on a security's pricing at the time of its initial public offering. Because the Thai capital market is highly regulated, especially in terms of auditor selection (i.e. the Thai Security and Exchange Commission provides a list of individually qualified auditors and underwriting firms that the issuing firms have to choose from), it is therefore of interest to look at the demand for reputable audit firms and the importance of reputation capital in the signaling mechanism. Design/methodology/approach - Data were collected from 100 issuing firms that went public between 2003 and 2008. Logistic regression and OLS regression were applied to test the relationship between the use of reputable audit firms and the level of underpricing of new issues. The demand for reputable audit firms in this highly regulated capital market is also examined. Findings - The results suggest that only the newer large firms will select the higher quality audit firms, namely the Big Four. Furthermore, the role of the audit firms in the signaling model is also examined. The findings illustrate that new security issues are underpriced less when they engage Big Four audit firms, but there is no significant association between the underwriter and the level of underpricing. However, this relationship becomes more negative when Big Four audit firms and prestigious underwriters are both employed. Research limitations/implications - The findings confirm the auditor's significant signaling role. Therefore, when the choice of an auditor and underwriter is restricted, the issuing firms should consider hiring reputable audit firms, rather than prestigious underwriters, at the time of the initial public offering. Potential investors could also use the interpretations of these findings to make rational investment decisions. Originality/value - The paper focuses on the new issues market in Thailand, which is inefficient and overly regulated.