1. Cédric VAN APPELGHEM PhD Supervisor: Prof. Pascal Louvet Financial information relevance and financial policy along the corporate lifecycle

2. Presentation structure 2 Introduction: Corporate Lifecycle Implications for financial information Research question Data and methodology Agenda and potential difficulties Theoretical and managerial implications

3. Corporate lifecycle 3 Activity starts Activity expands Activity is mature Activity declines New product or market introduced

4. Impact on financial information and corporate financial policy 4 Difficulty assessing start-up firms and their performance Information asymetry between insiders and other investors Financial information relevance lifecycle (Disle, 2004; Dumontier, 2004)

5. Research question 5 How does corporate financial information relevance influence corporate financial policy and external investment along the corporate lifecycle? Ownership structure Debt maturity structure Corporate performance External Investment

6. Data and methodology 6 European data extracted from Thomson Financial or Osiris 16 countries 2000- 4000 samples Excluding financial firms 4 portfolios of firms based on corporate lifecycle steps Principal component analysis

7. Research Agenda and potential difficulties Next 6 months: Building development stage portfolios Finding missing data in Osiris Circulating papers worldwide 7

8. Theoretical implications 8 Clarify impact of corporate lifecycle phase on firm financial policy Managerial & Legislative implications Improve start-up funding and rescue of bankrupt firms

9. Thank you for your attention! What about your questions?