New evidence on the pricing and performance of initial public offerings in Thailand, 1997-2008

This paper examines the pricing and performance of initial public offerings (IPOs) on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) from 1997 to 2008. Underpricing is calculated using headline underpricing and underpricing issuer loss, loss by market value, and loss by issuer price. The results show underpricing of 17.60%, 5.01%, 6.94%, 6.68% and 16.10%, respectively. This is significantly lower underpricing than documented in Thailand before the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Post-listing performance is assessed using monthly cumulative abnormal returns, buy-and-hold returns, and wealth relatives. The findings show that Thai IPOs generally outperform market benchmarks up to 24 months and underperform thereafter.