코넥스 신규상장기업의 상장가 할인과 감사인 특성

This study examine the effect of listing requirement relaxation, such as exemption from auditor designation for IPO firms in KONEX, on IPO discounts. Specifically, this study analyzes whether there are a difference in the level of IPO discounts between KONEX’s IPO firms and KOSDAQ’s IPO firms. Further, this study verify the impact of auditor’s industry specialization on IPO discounts of KONEX’s IPO firms. The main results of this study are as follows: First, this study find that KONEX’s IPO firms have higher IPO discounts than KOSDAQ’s IPO firms. This result are consistent even when control the auditor’s industry specialization variables as auditor characteristic. This result suggests that the degree of undervaluation of the offering price is relatively high in KONEX IPO market due to the listing requirement relaxation such as exemption from auditor designation for IPO firms. Second, this study find no evidence that the auditor’s industry specialization affects IPO discount for KONEX’s IPO firms. This result suggests that investors’ assessment of the overall reliability of KONEX IPO firms is low due to listing requirement relaxation. Accordingly, it is deemed difficult to fundamentally resolve the information asymmetry of KONEX’s IPO firms without the improvement of the listing system even if the auditor is expected to have high audit quality. This study contributes in terms of providing institutional implications related to investor protection for long－term success of the KONEX market. For example, it is deemed necessary to improve the system of KONEX IPO market, such as exemption from auditor designation, in order to raise an appropriate level of funding for KONEX’s IPO firms.