The Aftermarket Performance of Initial Public Offerings in Korea

In this paper, we empirically investigate Korean initial public offerings (IPOs) to provide one case of the international evidence on the long-run performance of IPOs. Our sample consists of 169 firms listed on the Korea Stock Exchange during the period 1985–1989. Unlike previous international evidence, our results reveal that the Korean IPOs outperform seasoned firms with similar characteristics. Much of the overperformance, however, takes place during the first month of seasoning and the long-run performance of Korean IPOs exclusive the first month of seasoning is not statistically different from that of seasoned firms. Our results also suggest that the existing theories on the long-run performance (Miller (1977) and Shiller (1990)) do not apply to the case of Korean IPOs. Finally, we find that the deregulation of June 1988 had a mixed impact on the aftermarket performance of Korean IPOs. It reduced the degree of initial underpricing but had no impact on IPOs' long-run performance