Share repurchases in South Korea - Stock price performance around buyback announcements

Abstract

Share repurchases have become an important method of corporate pay-out for companies in many countries in recent decades. This study uses a sample of 77 repurchase announcements of KOSPI-listed firms between 2003-2014 and tries to examine the effect of these repurchases on the short term stock price behaviour using an event study. The sample is divided in two subsamples to find a possible difference between companies belonging to a Korean business group (chaebol) and independent companies. The results show a significantly positive cumulative average abnormal return for the share prices of Korean companies after a share buyback announcement on the short run. This effect is higher for independent companies than for chaebol-affiliates.