Going public and characteristics of newly listed companies: evidence from the Bourse Regionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM)

The aim of this paper is to characterise the newly listed companies between 2002–2010 by analysing economic, financial and market criteria of the West Africa Stock Exchange. This study captures for the first time going public decision in a framework whereby how market authorities, listed companies and unlisted companies impacted on each other. We conjecture that, in such small stock market, the first listed companies through their characteristics set the trend for unlisted companies and disclose market’s authorities expected companies’ profile in the stock exchange. As a result, a new perspective on investigating the decision of going public especially in the context of emerging market is opened.