• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.45-57
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• 2022

Purpose: This paper examines whether or not universal banking operating in the asset management business tend to IPO underpricing when they are hosting IPOs in favor of their private interests. Previous studies suggest evidence which indicates that the universal banking operating in the asset management business tend to underestimate offering prices. This paper compares and analyzes the data before and after June 2007 to examine the influence of put-back option on IPO underpricing. Research design, data, and methodology: This paper compares the underwritten prices of IPOs of universal banking with and without asset management business in Korea in order to test such tendency actually exists. Result: We can find that such tendency is not correlated with first-day stock returns but correlated with put-back options. Our paper concludes that the hypothesis that "the universal banking's subsidiary asset management business influences the IPO underpricing" is found to be statistically insignificant. Conclusion: According to our analysis, it cannot be concluded that the interests of operating asset management do not conflict with the ones of underwriting business. However, it is so possible that the asset management companies try to harm the customers' interests, for instances churning and stuffing, it is necessary to scrutinize their behaviors and review the related regulations.