기업의 현금보유수준이 기업가치에 미치는 영향

The objective of this study is to examine the effects of current cash holdings and the increase in cash holdings on firm value. A total of 5,344 samples drawn from a period between 2011 and 2018, during which the International Financial Reporting Standards were adopted, were empirically tested to examine these effects. The results of a t－test presented that a group with higher cash holdings holds higher firm value than does the other. In addition, the group holds higher return on asset than does the other, showing that cash holdings can contribute to the enhancement of return on asset. Second, two groups were compared in terms of the increase and decrease of cash holdings；but the levels of the groups’ FV, a proxy of firm value are insignificantly different although the mean of a group with cash holdings increase is higher than that of the other group. Third, the results of a multivariate regression analysis for testing hypothesis 1 showed that cash holdings positively influence firm value, supporting the hypothesis. Fourth, the results of another multivariate regression analysis for testing hypothesis 2 presented that the changes in cash holdings from the previous year positively affect firm value, accepting the hypothesis. These results provided the evidence that cash holdings lead positively to the enhancement of firm value in Korea. Furthermore, it was confirmed that Korean companies can gain their financial stability by maintaining sufficient liquidity specifically in a highly uncertain time like the recent decade. It was also confirmed that an effort for a company to maintain cash holdings can be a reasonable strategy while a company’s unplanned increase of cash holdings can deteriorate its firm value.