The Effects Of Changes In Ownership Structure On Performance

Restrictions on stock ownership may harm a company's performance because restrictions prevent owners from choosing an optimal structure. We examine the stock-price performance and ownership structure of a sample of thrift institutions that converted from mutual to stock ownership. We find that, after conversion and the expiration of ownership-structure restrictions, firm performance improves significantly, and the portions of the firm owned by managers and the firm's employee stock ownership plan increase. Changes in performance are positively associated with changes in ownership by managers, but negatively associated with changes in ownership by employee stock ownership plans.

Restrictions on the ownership structure of a public company may harm the company's performance by preventing owners from choosing the best structure. We examine the stock-price performance and ownership structure, before and after the expiration of anti-takeover regulations, of a sample of thrift institutions that converted from mutual to stock ownership. We find that after the anti-takeover provisions expire, firm performance improves significantly, and the portions of the firm owned by managers, noninstitutional outside block holders, and the firm's employee stock ownership plan increase. Changes in performance are positively associated with changes in ownership by managers and by noninstitutional outside block holders but negatively associated with changes in ownership by employee stock ownership plans.

The relationship between ownership structure and firm performance has been studied extensively in corporate finance and corporate governance literature. Nevertheless, the mediation (path) analysis to examine the issue can be adopted as a new approach to explain why and how ownership structure is related to firm performance and vice versa. This approach calls for full recognition of the roles of agency costs and corporate risk-taking as essential mediating variables in the bi-directional and mediated relationship between ownership structure and firm performance. Based on the agency theory, corporate risk management theory and accounting for the dynamic endogeneity in the ownership–performance relationship, this book develops two-mediator mediation models, including recursive and non-recursive mediation models, to investigate the ownership structure–firm performance relationship. It is demonstrated that agency costs and corporate risk-taking are the ‘missing links’ in the ownership structure–firm performance relationship. Hence, this book brings into attention the mediation and dynamic approach to this issue and enhances the knowledge of the mechanisms for improving firm’s financial performance. This book will be of interest to corporate finance, management and economics researchers and policy makers. Post-graduate research students in corporate governance and corporate finance will also find this book beneficial to the application of econometrics into multi-dimensional and complex issues of the firm, including ownership structure, agency problems, corporate risk management and financial performance.

This report reflects long-term, in-depth discussion and debate by participants in the Latin American Roundtable on Corporate Governance.

Diploma Thesis from the year 2003 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 1,1 (A), European Business School - International University Schlo Reichartshausen Oestrich-Winkel (Endowed-Chairf for Corporate Finance and Capital Markets), language: English, abstract: The idea that the general characteristics of a firm's ownership structure can affect performance has achieved considerable attention and related research brought forward relatively consistent empirical evidence e.g. on the positive impact of managerial ownership on firm performance. However, the evidence on the relation between ownership and capital structure is less consistent and numerous, although there are good reasons to believe that there may be such a relationship. Since the capital structure irrelevance propositions of MODIGLIANI/MILLER economists have devoted considerable time to studying cross-sectional and time-series variations in capital structure. More recent work following the seminal contribution by JENSEN/MECKLING has employed an agency theory perspective in the search for an explanation of capital structure variations. With this managerial perspective capital structure is not only explained by variations in internal and external contextual factors of the firm, but also by the values, goals, preferences and desires of managers. Corporate financing decisions are influenced by managers' incentives and the incentives for managers to act opportunistically can be influenced by the ownership structure of the firm. However, most empirical work analyzing a firm's capital structure in cross-sectional and time-series studies ignores the equity ownership structure as a possible explanatory variable. This can be partly explained by problems associated with the availability of ownership data, when compared to readily available accounting and market data on other relevant variables. Notwithstanding, it entails a problem of model misspecification as omitting a relevant variable

This paper examines the effect of ownership structure on the market assessment of asset sales. Three types of ownership structures are identified: large block outside, inside, and widely held. Empirical results indicate that firms with large block outside shareholders experience significantly positive announcement effects for both buying and selling firm samples. These are significantly greater than those for the inside shareholder and large widely held firms. This paper also examines whether ownership structure of the firm being transacted with and disclosure of the price of the transaction has an effect on the market assessment of the deal.lease enter abstract text here.

The paper consists of two parts. In the first part, the authors briefly summarize the results of previous analyses devoted to such issues of relevance as the ownership structure of privatized companies in Poland and how it changed over the course of the 1990s, what factors seemed to have influenced those changes, the economic performance of these companies, and the composition of corporate governance organs such as supervisory and executive boards. In the second part, the authors present the results of econometric analysis of the relationship between performance and ownership structure evolution, focusing on concentration and the respective roles of three types of owners - managers, non-managerial employees, and strategic outside investors. In reference to the debate about whether ownership variables are exogenous or endogenous for performance, they test both hypotheses concerning the effect of ownership on performance and concerning the effect of performance on ownership change.