Organizational capital and private placements of common equity

We examine the impact of organizational capital (OC) on the performance of firms that engage in private equity placements. We document larger discounts in stock sales where issuers have more OC, which suggests that private equity investors demand a higher risk premium to compensate for OC risk. We also find the private placements completed by high‐OC issuers elicit more favorable announcement‐period returns and superior postissue performance than those completed by low‐OC issuers. These findings are consistent with the certification hypothesis and support research showing that OC improves firm efficiency and productivity. Our study sheds light on the importance of OC as a determinant of issuer outcome in private stock sales. Overall, our empirical results imply that OC reflects value‐relevant information that is consistent with certification benefits.