(Non) Impact of SOX

One of the great dynamics of accounting today is the work involved with proving public companies are in compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley. Now, as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board prepare votes on streamlining some aspects of the act's application - most particularly its dreaded section 404 - comes a survey that says SOX isn't driving all that IPO business overseas after all.

"There is little evidence that firms have been making listing decisions differently in recent years from how they made them from 1990 to 2001," said Andrew Karolyi, one of the co-authors of the survey.

"There is a valuation premium for firms that list on U.S. exchanges. It is robust and there is no evidence that the listing premium falls after 2001, even for listed firms from countries with good investor protection."

Sarbanes-Oxley not dissuading foreign listings-survey [Reuters]
SEC to finalize Sarbanes-Oxley tweaks [MarketWatch]