Asset Revaluations and Stock Prices of Korean Companies after Voluntary IFRS Adoption

We study the behavior of stock prices of listed non-financial Korean companies during a period of days surrounding a sample of announcements of asset revaluation after voluntary adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Korea. We primarily use event study methodology and simple regression model. Using the KIS-VALUE III database of Korea Information Service Inc., we collect a total of 69 companies that had asset revaluation in the period of 1 January-30 June 2010. The results show positive cumulative abnormal returns before the announcement date, with the reduced positive level maintained in the post-announcement period. These results indicate that the information of asset revaluations to the capital market is so useful that it conveys a corporate signal about favorable financial performance to stockholders.