• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.1-14
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• 2017

Initial public offering (IPO) has been well known to be underpriced initially and under-performed in the long run. However, whether an IPO is underpriced or not strongly depends on how to measure the fair value. This paper hand collects data of IPOs newly listed in Korea market when whether IPO is overpriced or not is clearly distinguishable. The overpriced IPO refers to as the one the underwriters buy back after the listing. With the data, the paper examines that IPOs are overpriced and that the characteristics are related to the underpricing at the aftermarket dates and the performance in the long run. The data of clearly overpriced IPOs are little available from other IPO markets like US IPO market. From the data of IPOs listed under the underwriting rule of market stabilization, the results obtainable are the followings. First of all, the average initial return 70% of the underpriced IPO at the aftermarket dates is greater than the one 40% of the overpriced one. The overpriced IPOs are priced highly over the mid prices of the price bands at the pricing dates and then supported by relatively higher subscription rates of individual investors. The probit analyses moreover report that individual investors do not distinguish the overpricing of IPOs from the underpricing. These imply that the overpricing is strongly affected by the underwriting rule on the initial pricing.