Tunneling and propping up: An analysis of related party transactions by Chinese listed companies

We examine a sample of related party transactions between Chinese publicly listed firms and their controlling shareholders during 2001–2002. Minority shareholders in these firms seem to be subject to expropriation through tunneling but also gain from propping up. On balance, there seems to be more tunneling than propping up. Both types of firms have larger state ownership compared to the rest of the Chinese market but firms that are propped up are larger and have larger state ownership than firms subject to tunneling. Propped up firms are more likely to have foreign shareholders and to be cross-listed abroad compared to firms that are subject to tunneling. Propped up firms also tend to have worse operating performance in the fiscal year preceding the announcement of the related party transaction. Finally, we find that related party transactions representing tunneling are accompanied by significantly less information disclosure compared to related party transactions representing propping.     

政府干预、大股东资产注入:支持抑或掏空

政府干预企业经营活动是普遍存在的现象。本文研究了国有控股上市公司资产注入中的"支持"、"掏空"现象。研究发现,政府控股股东比民营控股股东资产注入的动机更强烈。当上市公司盈利时,政府控股股东通过向上市公司注入资产"掏空"上市公司的动机比民营控股股东更加强烈,从而导致盈利的国有控股上市公司在资产注入之后业绩下降更多;而当政府控股上市公司被ST时,政府控股股东通过向国有控股上市公司注入资产"支持"上市公司的动机和力度比民营控股股东更加强烈,从而导致ST国有控股上市公司在资产注入之后业绩增长更快。     

Propping by controlling shareholders,wealth transfer and firm performance: Evidence from Chinese listed companies

Propping acts by controlling shareholders are common in Chinese listed firms. In this paper, we use data on related-party transactions of all listed Chinese firms from 2002 to 2008 to investigate the motivation behind controlling shareholders’ propping acts and subsequent wealth-transfer behavior and how both affect firm performance. We find that such institutional motivators as the maintenance of shell resources and qualification for refinancing have a significant effect on the propping behavior of controlling shareholders of Chinese listed firms and that such behavior is often followed by more serious tunneling when shareholders are driven by these motivators. Compared with non-state-owned firms, state-owned firms with the motivation to qualify for refinancing exhibit more severe tunneling after engaging in propping behavior. We also find that while propping by controlling shareholders improves a firm’s current operating performance, in firms whose controlling shareholders’ are motivated by the desire to maintain shell resources or obtain a refinancing qualification their performance declines in the following year because of subsequent tunneling. The results presented in this paper provide us with a better understanding of the relationship between propping and tunneling, controlling shareholders’ engagement in both and the consequences of that behavior.     

Does overcapacity prompt controlling shareholders to play a propping role for listed companies?

A major risk currently facing the Chinese economy is overcapacity, which affects the efficiency of social resource allocation (Xi et al., 2017; Huang et al., 2019). When a company is in crisis, the internal capital market often plays a propping role. This study approached this issue from the perspective of the controlling shareholder and examined whether controlling shareholders provide financial support to enterprises in industries with excess capacity. According to the data for China’s A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2019, companies in industries with excess capacity received more financial support from controlling shareholders compared with those in non-overcapacity industries. Analysis of the mechanism revealed that state-owned enterprises and companies with relatively poor financial status received more financial support from controlling shareholders. This study also examined the economic consequences of such support and found that it is conducive to enhancing enterprise value. This study enriches the literature on overcapacity and internal capital markets by demonstrating that internal capital markets play a propping role for companies facing industry-level crises. This finding has both theoretical value and practical implications related to supply-side reform and capacity reduction.     

Are related-party transactions beneficial or detrimental in emerging markets? New evidence of financial services agreements from China

This paper examines a new and underexplored form of related-party transactions in which Chinese listed companies sign financial services agreements with affiliated finance companies within the same business group. With FSAs, listed companies can readily finance through internal capital markets. However, some concerns controlling shareholders can use FSAs to embezzle funds of listed companies legitimately, thereby expropriating the wealth of minority shareholders. Using a staggered difference-in-differences model with fixed effects, we empirically examine the economic consequences of FSAs. We document that FSAs are detrimental to listed companies' market valuation and operating performance. This phenomenon mainly concentrates on companies without financial constraints and those with lower bankruptcy risks. Further analysis shows that sound corporate governance could inhibit the signing of FSAs ex-ante. This paper contributes to the literature on the economic consequences of related-party transactions in emerging markets. It also provides empirical support that the internal capital market of business groups in China is inefficient and offers controlling shareholders opportunities for tunneling.     

关联股权交易不同支付方式下的投资者收益研究——来自中国A股市场的经验证据

本文以我国A股市场2006年5月8日至2007年12月31日期间的关联股权交易公司为研究样本,按照支付方式将上市公司划分为非公开发行新股支付公司与现金支付公司,研究了是否存在大股东为了谋求自身更大利益而影响上市公司支付方式选择,从而侵蚀市场上其他投资者利益的现象。研究发现,在关联股权交易董事会决议公告之前的[-20,-2]共19天期间内,非公开发行新股支付方式下的上市公司投资者累积超额收益要远远低于现金支付方式下的相应收益,说明通过影响股价来实现自身利益的最大化成为大股东的现实选择。     

控制权转移和资产重组：掏空抑或支持——来自中国资本市场的经验证据

本文通过对控制权转移以后上市公司资产重组行为的研究,揭示了资产重组对上市公司业绩的重要影响。并就控制性股东对上市公司“掏空”和“支持”行为特征进行了分析。文中显示,控制权转移以后上市公司的业绩和关联性资产重组有密切关系,上市公司业绩的变化,在一定程度上和控制性股东利用资产重组对上市公司进行“掏空”和“支持”相关联。文中揭示了影响控制性股东掏空或支持上市公司的因素,借此提出相关政策建议。     

独立董事制度有效性与控股股东关联交易——来自深交所制造业上市公司的经验数据

基于2002～2008年深交所制造业上市公司的证据,本文以控股股东与上市公司之间的关联交易作为研究对象,结合独立董事所占比例、专业性和薪酬等基本特征,考察了独立董事能否有效发挥其监督职能。研究发现:独立董事的专业性对控股股东与上市公司的关联交易有显著的抑制作用,独立董事薪酬与控股股东与上市公司关联交易的频率显著正相关,独立董事的比例对控股股东与上市公司关联交易没有显著影响。这些结论有助于我们从新的视角去改进我国上市公司独立董事制度以提高其监督制约控股股东的职能。     

Tunneling,propping, and expropriation: evidence from connected party transactions in Hong Kong

We examine a sample of connected transactions between Hong Kong listed companies and their controlling shareholders. We address three questions: What types of connected transactions lead to expropriation of minority shareholders? Which firms are more likely to expropriate? Does the market anticipate the expropriation by firms? On average, firms announcing connected transactions earn significant negative excess returns, significantly lower than firms announcing similar arm's length transactions. We find limited evidence that firms undertaking connected transactions trade at discounted valuations prior to the expropriation, suggesting that investors cannot predict expropriation and revalue firms only when expropriation does occur.     

一损俱损:违规事件在企业集团内的传染效应研究

本文以企业集团为对象,研究违规事件的传染效应。利用2003-2015年我国上市公司违规样本,本文发现:(1)当公司发生违规行为而被证监会等监管机构进行处罚公告后,违规公司股价显著下跌的同时,同一集团内其他公司的股价也显著下跌,即违规事件在集团内存在传染效应,而这一传染效应主要存在于与信息披露相关的财务违规事件中;(2)进一步的路径检验发现“被传染公司”较低的盈余质量和集团内财务公司的存在能够解释传染效应的发生;(3)分组检验结果表明:集团内的传染效应在地区市场化程度较低、分析师跟踪人数较少、股权集中度较高的公司和国有企业中更为明显。借助违规事件的传染效应研究视角,本文的研究结果有助于进一步认识新兴市场中的企业集团。     

股权控制链、代理冲突与审计师选择

本文利用2002—2003年我国A股市场数据,从上市公司至其最终控制人之间的股权控制链①的视角,考察了上市公司控制性股东与中小股东之间的代理冲突,并在此基础上研究了其与高质量外部审计需求之间的关系。结果表明,控制链越长,控制性股东与中小股东之间的代理冲突就越严重。研究发现,控制性股东的控制权结构所产生的代理冲突越严重,上市公司越有可能聘请审计质量较高的"四大"审计;而聘请"四大",能够降低控制性股东的资金侵占程度,减缓公司的代理冲突。这说明在我国现阶段,高质量外部审计具有一定的治理作用。     

“掏空”与所有权安排——来自我国上市公司大股东资金占用的经验证据

本文以我国A股上市公司 2 0 0 0— 2 0 0 3年的关联交易数据为基础 ,对所有权结构与控股股东的掏空 (Tun neling)行为之间的关系进行了实证分析。结果表明 ,控股股东占用的上市公司资金与第一大股东持股比例之间存在先上升后下降的非线性关系 ,但与其他股东的持股比例则表现出严格的负相关关系。另外 ,控股股东的控制方式以及产权性质也对其资金占用行为具有重要影响。其中 ,通过控股公司控制上市公司的控股股东占用的资金低于通过企业集团控制的上市公司 ,国有企业控制的公司的控股股东占用的资金高于非国有企业控制的上市公司。     

Tunneling through intercorporate loans: The China experience

This study investigates a particularly brazen form of corporate abuse, in which controlling shareholders use intercorporate loans to siphon billions of RMB from hundreds of Chinese listed companies during the 1996–2006 period. We document the nature and extent of these transactions, evaluate their economic consequences, examine factors that affect their cross-sectional severity, and report on the mitigating roles of auditors, institutional investors, and regulators. Collectively, our findings shed light on the severity of the minority shareholder expropriation problem in China, as well as the relative efficacy of various legal and extra-legal governance mechanisms in that country.     

Decisions Made by the Controlling Shareholder Under Financial Crisis

We employ a sample of 12,200 observations from 2,321 companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges in China between 2005 and 2013 to test five hypotheses. The empirical results show that the cost of tunneling and ownership structure play important roles in restraining incentives to expropriate firms. Financial crisis will reinforce the incentive to propping rather than tunneling with higher ownership concentration. Moreover, controlling shareholders of state-owned enterprises show a stronger motivation to prop up during crisis periods than do those of non-state-owned enterprises. The results indicate that both an entrenchment effect and a convergence-of-interest effect actually exist and vary according to ownership structure and macroeconomic circumstances.     

Controlling shareholders’ tunneling and executive compensation: Evidence from China

Conflict of interests between controlling shareholders and minority shareholders could affect executive compensation contracts. In this paper, we use data on Chinese listed companies and show that controlling shareholders’ tunneling reduces the pay-performance sensitivity of executive compensation. These results suggest that while incentive payment schemes are generally adopted in Chinese listed companies, controlling shareholders who obtain private benefits from listed companies have less incentive to strengthen the relationship between executive pay and firm performance.     

Best Practices in Corporate Governance: What Two Decades of Research Reveals

This report addresses two key questions for today's top executives: Do acquisitions create value for acquirers? And under what circumstances have acquisitions created the most value for acquiring shareholders?
The authors' analysis of over 1,500 completed deals by non-financial companies in the United States over the past 12 years shows that, at announcement, acquirers' shareholders suffer small losses, on average, in the short term around the initial deal announcement. Over longer intervals, such as one or two years following the announcement of the transaction, acquirers tend to slightly outperform industry peers.
The average or median market response hides tremendous variability in how the market has reacted to individual deals, however. This article provides evidence that the "right" M&A transaction can create substantial value for acquirers. One-quarter of the transactions lead to market-adjusted gains in excess of 5% for the acquirer and oneeighth of the transactions lead to gains in excess of 10% in the short term. However, some deals have also destroyed substantial shareholder value.
Financing structure is a key driver of the stock market reaction. Stock-financed transactions, on average, have a negative stock market reaction, while cash-financed transactions have benefited acquirers in both the short term as well as the long term.
Acquisitions of private companies or assets and units of public companies have consistently generated higher returns for acquirers than purchases of public companies.
Moreover, EPS dilution is not a major driver of how the stock market reacts to a deal. Although "accretive" deals perform slightly better than "dilutive" ones in the short and long run, the difference is small and not statistically significant. Over the long run, acquiring shareholders have benefited the most from deals within the same industry and that avoid targets with relatively optimistic earnings growth projections.     

CREATING VALUE WITH MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS

This report addresses two key questions for today's top executives: Do acquisitions create value for acquirers? And under what circumstances have acquisitions created the most value for acquiring shareholders?
The authors' analysis of over 1,500 completed deals by non-financial companies in the United States over the past 12 years shows that, at announcement, acquirers' shareholders suffer small losses, on average, in the short term around the initial deal announcement. Over longer intervals, such as one or two years following the announcement of the transaction, acquirers tend to slightly outperform industry peers.
The average or median market response hides tremendous variability in how the market has reacted to individual deals, however. This article provides evidence that the "right" M&A transaction can create substantial value for acquirers. One-quarter of the transactions lead to market-adjusted gains in excess of 5% for the acquirer and oneeighth of the transactions lead to gains in excess of 10% in the short term. However, some deals have also destroyed substantial shareholder value.
Financing structure is a key driver of the stock market reaction. Stock-financed transactions, on average, have a negative stock market reaction, while cash-financed transactions have benefited acquirers in both the short term as well as the long term.
Acquisitions of private companies or assets and units of public companies have consistently generated higher returns for acquirers than purchases of public companies.
Moreover, EPS dilution is not a major driver of how the stock market reacts to a deal. Although "accretive" deals perform slightly better than "dilutive" ones in the short and long run, the difference is small and not statistically significant. Over the long run, acquiring shareholders have benefited the most from deals within the same industry and that avoid targets with relatively optimistic earnings growth projections.     

上市公司大股东的“掏空”路径及制衡机制研究

在中国股权相对集中或高度集中的上市公司中,由于控股股东或大股东掌握着公司的实际控制权,大股东的自利天性与机会主义行为可能导致其利用资金占用、关联交易、股利政策和内幕交易等种种手段实现大股东掏空。为遏制大股东掏空现象的泛滥,需从内部治理和外部制衡两个角度,构建大股东掏空的内外部制衡机制,以保护中小股东权益的不受侵害。     

控制股东的掏空行为与公司的股权结构及公司价值——基于双层委托代理模型的分析

本文构建了一个小股东、控制股东和经理人之间的双层委托代理理论分析框架来分析我国上市公司中同时存在的两类代理问题:股东与经理人的利益冲突以及控制股东与小股东的利益冲突。在此基础上着重研究了控制股东掏空行为与公司股权结构及公司价值之间的关系。通过分析指出:(1)均衡状态下,公司的所有权集中程度由公司股东所受投资者法律保护程度决定。随着投资者法律保护程度的增加,小股东最优的投资数量也会增加,公司的所有权结构趋于更加分散。(2)在公司的现金流所有权结构确定的情况下,由股东和经理人之间的信息非对称性引起的股东和经理人之间的利益冲突会减少公司价值,使得控制股东和小股东的利益均受到损害。控制股东掏空资产收益的比例随着其自身现金流所有权的增加而减少,随着其控制权和所有权之间的分离程度而增加,随着投资者法律保护的增加而减少。(3)相对于公司中仅仅存在股东和经理人之间的利益冲突的情形,控制股东的掏空行为会进一步降低公司的价值,而且降低的程度会随着控制股东的控制权和所有权的分离程度的增加而增加。(4)当控制股东完全不能进行掏空时,即使小股东仍然面临由于公司中的第Ⅰ类代理问题引起的利益损害,但均衡时,由于控制股东和小股东之间不存在利...     

外部环境、内部制度与控股股东支持行为

控股股东支持是与掏空相反的一种利益输送行为,表现为控股股东用私人资源或其控制的资源支持处于困境中的上市公司。基于对近期文献的回顾与梳理,从外部环境、内部制度与支持方式三个角度研究控股股东支持行为。发现控股股东通常是在弱法律保护环境与中度经济冲击的背景下利用企业集团内部资本市场对其控制的上市公司进行包括负债、关联交易等在内的各种方式的利益输送。