The average underpricing computed over the whole sample of privatised firms (55 observations)
appears to be approximately 13% and shows to be significantly and negatively correlated with size
(ASSETS, SALES and CAPITAL EMPLOYED), profitability (ROCE), leverage (TOT_DEBT), liquidity
(QUICK) and number of directors (Table 7). Moreover, the underpricing is negatively correlated with
the level of net proceeds from the privatisation offering (proceeds). We can interpret this variable as a
measure of the ex-ante uncertainty about the new offerings. A lower level of proceeds may indicate a
greater uncertainty about the future prospects of the firm, and a negative relationship between this
variable and the degree of underpricing would be consistent with our expectations. Finally, it emerges
that the underpricing is not the result of a general increase in the stock market returns (in the period
between the last offer day and the first trading day). This hypothesis is indeed strongly rejected by a
statistically non significant coefficient both in the univariate analysis (correlation coefficient) and in
the multivariate analysis developed below.