시장의 관점에서 본 우회상장의 정책 효과: 2006년 코스닥시장의 규제강화조치를 중심으로

To correct the negative effects of the back-door listing, in June 2006, KOSDAQ strengthened the back-door listing standards to the same quantitative level as the initial public offerings (IPOs) require (hereafter referred as “the 2006 Regulatory Change”). However, firms entering KOSDAQ by the back-door listing do not need to meet the qualitative listing standards as IPOs must meet. We examine whether the 2006 Regulatory Change was effective to realize the positive features of back-door listing. We also attempt to observe the implications that the back-door listing, as a listing method, provides for the Korean stock market. We conduct all the analyses focusing on market and policy maker’s viewpoints. We find that the following results occurred after the 2006 Regulatory Change. First, the firms that entered KOSDAQ by back-door listing improved the market quality significantly. Second, the target firms for back-door listing also increased the market quality, and the KOSDAQ market itself started to evaluate the back-door listing as it is, not overvalue it. Third, in spite of the positive features above, the market quality for back-door listing firms is still lower for IPO firms, which suggests that the qualitative assessment for IPO firms conducted by KOSDAQ is a meaningful step to improve the market quality. Taken together, our findings suggest that the back-door listing does not have only negative aspects as the critics claim; if the market and policy makers response strategically to the market conditions with associated listing standards, then the positive aspects of back-door listing will be able to be realized.