(Southern New Hampshire University, 2000-11) Aybar, C. Bulent
American Depository Receipts (ADRs) have been increasingly used in the Share Issue Privatization process (SIP) by privatizing governments both in developed and developing countries. In this study long-term performance of 143 privatization related ADR programs were analyzed. The ADR programs covered in the study were initiated between 1984 and 1999, and included a diverse mix of companies from 29 different industries across 31 developed an emerging markets. The analysis of the long run performance of these programs revealed interesting patterns. In all cases, average cumulative returns and average cumulative abnormal returns of developed country privatization related ADRs exceeded emerging market privatization returns. Same conclusion was reached by using an alternative return calculation methodology. While sample companies generally outperformed their respective country indices and FT World index, they under performed the S&P500 Index.