Small, early-stage IPOs listing on the `hybrid' venture capital/ASX main board exchange: Investigation into IPO first-day discounts, long term performance, localised ecosystems, and WA's financial risk tolerance

Over the past two decades, listed US company numbers have fallen dramatically by over 50%, largely on account of fewer small-firm listings. The ASX is an exception. We study ASX IPO performance over 21 years, finding that despite vast investor and institutional structural differences, the number of listed companies has doubled, 78% are small/micro-cap with strong LT performance of 18.62% (vs 2.28% large IPOs), on average firms appear to delist for positive reasons, and average 18.45% discounts, time-series-behaviour and distribution are similar to the U.S. The ASX is an important source of early-stage capital, effectively encroaching on usual private-funding options.