新冠肺炎疫情、募集资金投向变更与股票市场反应

COVID-19, Change of Committed Investment Project and Capital Market Reaction

以中国A股上市公司为样本,采用事件研究法分析新冠肺炎疫情暴发前后公司用募集资金补充流动资金的市场反应。研究发现,在疫情暴发前,该行为的市场反应为正但不显著;在疫情暴发后,该行为的市场反应显著为负,与疫情前相比显著降低。进一步分析发现,对于事后未归还募集资金、债务融资能力较弱的公司而言,尤其是处在受疫情影响较严重地区、产品市场竞争较激烈行业的公司,其市场负面反应更加显著,这表明公司动用募集资金释放了财务困难的负面信号。但是,对于持有较多现金、股利分配水平较高的公司而言,尤其在市场情绪水平较高的时候,其市场负面反应反而更加显著,这表明投资者质疑公司改变募集资金用途的合理性。

Selecting Chinese A-share listed firms as the sample, the paper adopted the event study method to examine the capital market reaction of listed companies using raised funds to supplement liquidity before and after the outbreak of the COVID-19. We found that, before the outbreak of the COVID-19, the market reaction of funds allocation was positive but not significant. However,after the outbreak of the COVID-19, market reaction was significantly negative, and lower than that before the epidemic. Further analysis showed that, for the companies that did not return raised funds afterwards or had weak debt financing capabilities, their negative market reaction was more evident, especially for the companies located in the areas having severer outbreaks or competed fiercely in product markets. The phenomenon revealed that, the change of committed investment project had released the negative signal of financial distress. However, for the companies holding more cash or having a higher level of dividend distribution, negative market reaction was more pronounced, especially in the state of higher market sentiment level. And the condition reflected that,investors had questioned the rationality of the change of committed investment project.