초록 열기/닫기 버튼
본 연구는 국내 상장기업의 유상증자 시 현금저축의 크기와 동기를 분석하였다. 유상증자로 조달된 자금이당해 현금으로 저축되는 비중을 측정하기 위해 평균저축률(＝현금증가액/증자금액)을 사용하였다. 분석 결과국내 기업은 유상증자 금액의 평균 36.5%를 당해 현금 보유하는 것으로 추정되며, 이를 반영하여 유상증자당해의 현금비율(＝현금/총자산)은 크게 상승한다. 하지만 유상증자 후 향후 3년 기간 동안 현금비율은가파르게 하락하는데, 이는 저축된 현금이 소비되기 때문이기 보다는 유상증자 후 총자산의 높은 성장률에기인한 것으로 보인다. 유상증자-현금저축의 동기를 분석하기 위해 성장지원 가설, 예비적 현금보유 동기 가설, 마켓타이밍 가설을설정하여 분석하였다. 성장지원가설은 기업이 성장 기회를 실현할 목적으로 유상증자를 실시하며 향후 증대될기업 활동을 지원할 목적으로 유상증자 시 현금저축을 한다는 주장이다. 위에 서술한 유상증자 이후 총자산의높은 성장률은 이 가설과 일관성이 있으며, 횡단면 회귀분석 결과 평균저축률이 높은 유상증자 일수록 향후매출액 증가율이 높은 것으로 나타나 이 가설이 추가 지지 되었다. 예비적 현금보유 동기 가설은 현금흐름불확실성이 높은 기업일수록 유상증자 시 현금저축을 많이 한다는 주장인데, 횡단면 회귀분석 결과영업이익률의 변동성과 평균저축률 간 양(＋)의 관계가 확인되어 이 가설을 지지하는 증거가 발견되었다. 마지막으로 마켓타이밍 가설은 일시적 주가 고평가를 활용하려는 유상증자일수록 현금저축률이 높다는주장인데, 회귀분석 결과에 따르면 이 가설은 지지 되지 않았다.
This study investigates how much and why Korea’s listed firms save cash from equity issuance. We use the average cash-savings rate (defined as the change in cash divided by issue proceeds) to measure the size of cash savings in equity issuance. Our results show that, on average, equity issuers retain 36.5% of issue proceeds in cash in the issue year. Because of the cash savings, equity issuing firms’ cash ratio (i.e., the cash-to-assets ratio) jumps substantially in the issue year, but their cash ratio drops sharply in the post-issue years. According to our results, equity issuers’ median cash balance does not decrease in the post-issue years, whereas their median assets increase steadily at a fast pace. Therefore, the steep drop in the post-issue cash ratio appears to come from equity issuers’ fast post-issue asset growth-not because they burn through saved cash rapidly. We also find that equity issuance reinforces the previously documented mean-reverting tendency of firms’ cash ratio, consistent with the observation that fast post-issue asset growth results in lower cash ratios. Taken together, our observations are aligned with the notion that firms exercise equity as a way to exercise their growth options, which yields fast growth in post-issue years. In search of the motive of equity issuers’ cash savings, we develop and test three hypotheses: the growth-support hypothesis, the precautionary motive hypothesis and the market-timing hypothesis. First, the growth-support hypothesis maintains that equity issuers save cash in anticipation of (and in preparation for) business expansion in the post-issue years. The premise of this hypothesis is that firms seek to realize fast growth by exercising growth options through equity issuance. This hypothesis predicts that equity issuers will grow faster in the post-issue years, the higher their cash savings from issue proceeds. Our cross-sectional regression results support this prediction. Second, the precautionary motive hypothesis holds that equity issuers facing high levels of cash-flow uncertainty have an incentive to save a high percentage of issue proceeds to cope with precarious business conditions. In our regression analysis, we find evidence in support of the precautionary motive hypothesis, as the amount of cash savings in equity issuance is positively associated with the standard deviation of the operating rate of return (a proxy for cash-flow uncertainty). Finally, the market-timing hypothesis assumes that firms issue equity when their shares are overvalued or traded at temporarily high levels. If equity issuance is indeed motivated by temporarily high share prices (i.e., rather than a decision to exercise growth options), then equity issuers will park a high percentage of issue proceeds in cash, the higher their pre-issue overvaluation. However, our regression results do not support this hypothesis, as the amount of cash savings in equity issuance are not significantly associated with post-issue stock returns. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the size and motive of Korean firms’ cash savings from equity issuance. Our results suggest that Korean firms save a substantial fraction of issue proceeds in cash as a way to support post-issue business expansions and to deal with high future uncertainty.
키워드열기/닫기 버튼
Equity Issuance, Cash Savings, Cash Holdings, Firm Growth, Precautionary Motive
