The performance and long-run characteristics of the Chinese IPO market

We study the short-run and long-run performance of 340 and 409 IPOs, respectively, listed on China's two exchanges from 1996 to 1997. We find that the average underpricing is 127.3%, and that the average market-adjusted cumulative return and buy-and-hold return over the three years after listing are 10.3% and 10.7%, respectively, which are both significantly positive at the 5% level. We then use a cross-sectional analysis to explain the long-run out-performance of Chinese IPOs, and find that firms with lower government ownership, smaller offering sizes, high-tech features and lower initial returns perform better in the long-run.