Ownership and capital structure in Latin America

This study evaluates the capital-structure determinants of Latin American firms using a comprehensive sample covering seven countries. Firms in the region have debt levels similar to those of U.S. firms, which is puzzling, given that Latin American firms experience relatively lower tax benefits and higher bankruptcy costs. This study argues that ownership-concentrated firms avoid issuing equity because they do not want to share control rights. Latin American firms have high ownership concentration, which creates an ideal setting to study how ownership concentration explains firms' capital structure. Consistent with the control argument, this study finds a positive relation between leverage and ownership concentration, when losing control becomes an issue. Also, the study shows a positive relation between leverage and growth. In addition, the study reports that other determinants that do not proxy for control rights are consistent with previous findings. Firms that are larger, have more tangible assets, and are less profitable are also more leveraged.     

Founding Family Controlled Firms: Performance, Risk, and Value

An agency theory framework is used to test the effects of founding family control on firm performance, capital structure, and value. Both the finance and management literatures regarding the relationship between firm control and firm value are explored. Controlling for size, industry, and managerial ownership, the results suggest that firms controlled by the founding family have greater value, are operated more efficiently, and carry less debt than other firms.     

Capital Structure,Management Ownership and Large External Shareholders: A UK Analysis

This paper examines empirically the effects of management ownership and ownership by large external shareholders on the capital structure of the firm from an agency theory perspective. The paper extends the US literature on the topic by examining the effect of interactions between management ownership and ownership by large external shareholders on the capital structure of UK firms. For a sample of UK firms, the paper provides empirical evidence that suggests the debt ratio is positively related to management ownership and negatively related to ownership by large external shareholders. Furthermore, the presence of a large external shareholder acts to negate the positive relationship between debt ratios and management ownership; in the presence of a large external shareholder, no significant relationship between debt ratios and management ownership exists. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the presence of large external shareholders affects the agency costs of debt and equity.     

Capital structure decision making: A model for family business

Most theoretical and empirical studies of capital structure focus on public corporations. Only a limited number of studies on capital structure have been conducted on small-to-medium size enterprises (SMEs), and this deficiency is particularly evident in investigations into factors that influence funding decisions of family business owners.Theory indicates that there is a complex array of factors that influence SME owner-managers' financing decisions. Recent family business literature suggests that these processes are influenced by firm owners' attitudes toward the utility of debt as a form of funding as moderated by external environmental conditions (e.g., financial and market considerations).A number of other factors have been shown to influence financing decisions including culture; entrepreneurial characteristics; entrepreneurs' prior experiences in capital structure; business goals; business life-cycle issues; preferred ownership structures; views regarding control, debt–equity ratios, and short- vs. long-term debt; age and size of the firm; sources of funding for growth; attitudes toward debt financing; issues relating to independence and control; and perceived risk and attitudes toward personal risk.Although these factors have been identified, until now there does not appear to have been any attempts to develop empirically-based models that show relationships between these factors and family business owners' financing decisions. Utilizing theories derived from divergent disciplines, this study develops an empirically tested structural equation model of financing antecedents of family businesses. Participants of our study involved a random sample of 5000 business owners who were mailed a 250-item Australian Family and Private Business questionnaire developed specifically for this investigation.Notably, our findings reveal that firm size, family control, business planning, and business objectives are significantly associated with debt. Small family businesses and owners who do not have formal planning processes in place tend to rely on family loans as a source of finance. However, family businesses in the service industry (e.g., retailers and wholesalers) are less likely to use family loans as are those owners who are planning to achieve growth through new products or process development. Use of capital and retained profits is likely for family businesses planning to achieve growth through an increase in sales but less is likely for family businesses in the manufacturing sector and lifestyle firms. In addition, debt and family loans are negatively related to capital and retained profits. Equity is a consideration for owners of large businesses, young firms, and owners who plan to achieve growth through increasing profit margins. However, equity is less likely to be a consideration for older family business owners and owners who have a preference for retaining family control.Our findings suggest that the interplay between multiple social, family, and financial factors is complex. In addition, our findings indicate the importance of utilizing theories that also help to explain behavioral factors (e.g., owners' needs to be in control) that affect financial structure decision-making processes. Practitioners and researchers should consider the dynamic interplay among business characteristics (e.g., size or industry), behavioral aspects of business financing (e.g., business objectives), and financial factors (e.g., gearing levels) when working with and researching family enterprises.     

External managers,family ownership and the scope of SME internationalization

SMEs are important to world business and the majority of SMEs are family firms. Yet some family SMEs are inert, local firms while others are dynamic and international. Do certain governance structures encourage the scale and scope of their internationalization? We jointly apply social capital and corporate governance theories to explain the scope of family SMEs internationalization, and find that professional managers externally recruited from outside the family are important, but only for lower levels of family ownership, suggesting synergistic combinations of ownership and management. It is the combination of external capital with external managers that really works.     

家族企业代际传承与债务特征

代际传承前充分的制度安排有助于降低权杖交接的事后成本,债务政策如何支持代际传承构成传承前财务安排的重要内容。文章利用正处于代际传承实施期的家族企业十年的面板数据,检验了代际传承前家族企业债务特征变化。研究表明进入代际传承实施期后家族企业表现出更低的资产负债率、更大的长期债务比重以及更高的流动比率,研究还表明控制权与现金流权的分离程度对进入代际传承实施期的家族企业债务特征起到干扰作用。家族企业进入代际传承实施期后倾向于实施风险更低的债务政策。     

The Financial Structure of Private Held Belgian Firms

We examine the determinants of the debt-equity choice and the debt maturity choice for a sample of small, privately held firms in a creditor oriented environment. Our results, which are based on 4,706 firm-year observations for 1132 Belgian firms in the period 1996–2000, generally confirm the role of asymmetric information and agency costs of debt as major determinants of the financial structure of privately held firms. High growth firms and firms with less tangible assets have a lower debt ratio. We also find that more profitable firms have less debt. Firms tend to match the maturity of debt with the maturity of their assets. Growth options do not seem to influence debt maturity, which would suggest that the underinvestment problem is resolved by lowering leverage and by bank monitoring, not by reducing debt maturity. Credit risk is also an important determinant of debt maturity: firms with higher credit risk borrow more on the short term. Finally, in contrast to most studies on the financial structure of companies, we find that larger firms tend to have a higher debt ratio and a shorter debt maturity.      

法制环境、两权分离与资本结构动态调整

本文实证检验了法制环境以及控股股东控制权和所有权分离对资本结构动态调整的影响。研究发现：上市公司控股股东控制权和所有权分离程度越高,实际资本结构偏离最优资本结构的幅度越大,资本结构调整速度越慢;上市公司所处的法制环境越好,实际资本结构偏离最优资本结构的幅度越小,资本结构调整速度越快;法制环境的改善能够显著的缓解两权分离对资本结构动态调整的负面影响;结合中国的制度背景,基于公司产权性质的分析发现,相比国有上市公司,非国有上市公司受法制环境和两权分离的影响更加显著。     

Internal Control Weaknesses,Family Ownership and the Cost of Debt: Evidence from the Tunisian Stock Exchange

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the effect of internal control weaknesses (ICW) and family ownership on the cost of debt in the Tunisian setting. We document that ICW and family ownership are positively associated with the cost of debt. When testing for the moderating effect of family ownership on the association between ICW and the cost of debt, we document that the positive effect of ICW on the cost of debt is more pronounced under high family ownership in the Tunisian setting. Furthermore, the positive and significant association between ICW and the cost of debt is more prevailing for firms audited by non-Big 4 auditors and industrial companies. These findings may have policy implications for Tunisian policymakers with respect to the establishment of internal control standards.     

Effects of Foreign Institutional Ownership on Foreign Bank Lending: Some Evidence for Emerging Markets

Despite the large literature on developed countries, little is known about the interactions between corporate governance, foreign ownership, and foreign bank lending in developing countries. Using data from five Latin American countries from 2001 to 2008, we provide one of the first pieces of evidence of how foreign ownership affects the loan cost of borrowers in emerging markets. We find that in terms of foreign bank lending, the cost of debt financing is significantly higher for firms whose largest shareholder is a foreign institutional one. The results support the hypothesis that because of potential agency conflicts between shareholders and creditors, having block institutional shareholders tend to increase the borrowers’ debt burden. There is further evidence supporting this agency conflict hypothesis as we find that the effects of large institutional shareholders on borrowing costs become larger (smaller) when the conflicts are aggravated (mitigated).     

Outside directors, board interlocks and firm performance: Empirical evidence from Colombian business groups

We investigate the relation of board structure through the appointments of outside directors and the role of busy directors on firm return on assets within an environment of no regulation for privately held firms and voluntary adoption of corporate best practices for security issuers with family controlling blockholders. This study relies on a sample of an average of 335 firms per year for the 1996-2006 period, where 244 are private firms and 285 are affiliated to one of the seven largest non-financial business groups in the country. Five of these groups were, in 2006, still family-controlled. We find a positive relation between both the ratio of outside directors, and the degree of board interlocks, with firm return-on-assets. Outside busy directors turned out to be key drivers of improved firm performance. Appointments of outsiders are endogenous to firm ownership structure. Blockholder activism as well as contestability becomes an internal mechanism that improves director monitoring and ex-post firm valuation.     

Banking sector reforms and corporate leverage in emerging markets

Using a large panel of non-financial firms in emerging markets, we study the relation between detailed measures of banking sector reforms and corporate leverage. We find that banking sector reforms are associated with lower corporate debt in emerging market firms, consistent with the notion that these reforms improve banks' risk management and result in tighter lending standards, leading firms to use less bank debt in their capital structure. These effects are less pronounced for financially constrained firms, suggesting a relative increase in the supply of bank credit to firms which were rationed prior to the banking sector reforms.     

Does Geographic Proximity Change the Passiveness of Equity Ownership by Bank Trust?

We provide evidence that while concentrated bank trust ownership is passive with distant firms, it is nonpassive with local firms and reduce their risk‐taking. Concentrated local bank trust ownership is associated with (i) lower future firm equity beta and (ii) less uncertain corporate policies. The results cannot be explained by private information alone, are not driven by local bank trusts as a mixed debt‐equity holder, and are robust to various tests for endogeneity. We also explore channels through which local bank trusts could exert their influence, including their stabilizing function during crisis periods and joining force with local independent directors.     

The influences of governance quality on equity-based entry mode choice: The strengthening role of family control

This study examines the possible heterogeneity of governance quality's influence on entry mode decisions made by firms with different degrees of family control. When entering a country with low governance quality, ceding control of the subsidiary in exchange for local partners’ help enables foreign firms to tackle institutional flaws. However, such a motivation diminishes as governance quality increases. This study thus hypothesizes that firms tend to choose WOSs over JVs when entering a host country with high governance quality.Firms controlled by family members, due to concerns regarding the preservation of socioemotional wealth, prefer to maintain high ownership levels of their affiliates. This study thus hypothesizes that firms with a higher degree of family control are even more likely to choose WOSs when entering a country with high governance quality. The results support the hypotheses.     

Does Family and Lone Founder Involvement Lead to Similar Indebtedness?

This study evaluates whether the presence of a lone founder and family involvement impact private firms’ leverage differently from a methodological view. Using a sample of 4,102 private firms in Spain and taking under consideration a panel data structure from 2006 to 2013, we find that lone founder and family involvement matter in capital structure decisions and size shapes the forementioned influence. Our findings show that lone founder involvement always implies higher debt than the rest of firms and suggest that firms with genuine family involvement are significantly low debt companies.     

Debt composition and exchange rate balance sheet effect in Brazil: a firm level analysis

In this paper, we study the interaction between macroeconomic environment and firms’ balance sheet effects in Brazil during the 1990's. We start by assessing the influence of macroeconomic conditions on firms’ debt composition in Brazil. We found that larger firms tend to change debt currency composition more in response to a change in the exchange rate risk. We then proceed to investigate if and how exchange rate balance sheet effects affected the firms’ investment decisions. We test directly the exchange rate balance sheet effect on investment, but the results were not statistically significant. We then pursue an alternative investigation strategy, inspired by the credit channel literature. According to this perspective, Tobin's q can provide an adequate control for the competitiveness effect on investment. Our results provide supporting evidence for imperfect capital markets, but not for a balance sheet effect in Brazil. The main effect we found is that firms in industries with higher proportion of imported inputs tend to invest less when the exchange rate is depreciated.     

社会资本对公司债务期限结构的影响--来自中国上市公司的经验证据

本文首先从社会信任、社会组织、社会参与、社会慈善四个维度度量中国各地区社会资本的发展水平,运用因子分析法构建社会资本的综合分数。在此基础上,选取2010－2013年可持续获得相关信息的468家上市公司组成的平衡面板数据为样本,运用固定效应模型和非参数检验方法实证检验社会资本与公司债务期限结构之间的关系。研究发现：社会资本和债务期限结构具有显著的正相关关系,即上市公司所属地区社会资本的发展水平越高,公司债务期限结构越长。     

The Effects of Ownership Structure on Corporate Financing Decisions: Evidence from Stock Market Liberalization

We analyze the impact of firm‐specific stock market liberalization events on the capital structure and debt maturity decisions of firms from emerging market economies. We differentiate between firms based on their ownership structures at the time of liberalization and analyze their post‐liberalization behavior regarding corporate financing decisions. Our empirical results show that single–class‐share firms (typically with stronger corporate governance and better information environments) respond differently to their dual–class‐share counterparts. Liberalization results in lower debt reliance for the former group while the latter lengthen the maturity of their debt portfolios. Jel Classification: F30; G15; G32.     

Directors' ownership and the performance of small and medium sized firms in the U.K.

The primary purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between firm performance and the proportion of shares owned by directors for a sample of small and medium sized companies in the U.K. The paper also examines, however, the impact of organisational form on firm performance. The results suggest that, in contrast to the majority of large firm studies on the subject, a curvilinear relationship is found to exist between firm performance and the percentage of equity held by the board of directors. The return on assets of firms is found to increase as director ownership increases up to a maximum at 68.2% of ownership, after which it then decreases as director ownership approaches 100% of equity. In addition, the results suggest that firms whose directors are more highly remunerated and who hold directorships in other companies are significantly more profitable. Furthermore, firms in which the owners perceive present management practices to be lacking in structure are found to have significantly lower performance.     

Family Control,International Accounting Standards,and Access to Foreign Banks: Evidence from International Entrepreneurial Firms

This article aims to understand if a change in accounting standards offers new avenues for helping entrepreneurial firms, especially those family‐controlled ones, to obtain debt financing from foreign banks. We find that amid the global wave of adopting International Accounting Standards (IAS), family‐controlled firms tend not to voluntarily switch from local generally accepted accounting principles to IAS. After self‐selection issues are taken into account, furthermore, entrepreneurial firms adopting IAS experience less difficulty accessing loans from international banks. However, IAS adoption differentially influences private firms, family owned versus nonfamily controlled, in terms of their access to debt capital.