How the unremunerated reserve requirement by the Bank of Thailand affects IPO underpricing and the long-run performance of IPOs

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of the Initial Public Offering (IPO) market, IPO underpricing and the long-run performance of IPOs and to find out the ex ante difference in the market structure between the pre-, during and post-periods of the Unremunerated Reserve Requirement (URR) at the 30 per cent rate. Design/methodology/approach The sample is a total of 245 IPOs listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and the Market for Alternative Investment (mai), during the period 2001-2012. The explanatory variables consist of the age of the firm, the offer size, the time-lag between the IPO date and the first trading date, the proportion of shares owned by the government and the IPO subscription rates by foreign and institutional investors. In further analysis, the authors adopt a two-stage least squares approach to derive unbiased estimates of the relationship between government ownership, IPO underpricing and firm quality. Findings We find the ex ante uncertainty and earning management partially explain the IPO underpricing phenomenon in the Thai IPO market. Our findings support the impresario hypothesis shown by the negative relation between underpricing and the three-year after-market. In addition, the 30 per cent URR imposition by the Thai Central Bank promptly reduced the number of IPO issues and the proportion of foreigners and institutions subscribing to IPOs. However, it was able to enhance the degrees of IPO underpricing and the long-run performance of IPOs in Thailand. Practical implications The results presented in this paper may be, therefore, useful for investors, security analysts, companies and regulators in many other emerging markets beyond Thailand. Given the results from the over-performance of IPOs in the post-URR period, investors may do better holding Thai IPOs for a long period with a likelihood of gaining a higher return. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature concerning IPOs – in that we have considered two stock markets, namely, SET and mai. Furthermore, unique data such as the government ownership and proportion of IPOs subscribed by foreign and institutional investors are taken into consideration in our research model. To the best of our knowledge, for the first time in the Thai IPO market, the effect of the 30 per cent URR on IPO underpricing and the performance of IPOs in the long-run has been closely examined.