Corporate Restructuring in Response to Performance Decline: Impact of Ownership, Governance and Lenders

Firms in performance decline may choose a variety of restructuringstrategies for recovery with conflicting welfare implicationsfor different stakeholders such as shareholders, lenders andmanagers. Choice of recovery strategies is therefore determinedby the complex interplay of ownership structure, corporate governanceand lender monitoring of such firms. For a sample of 297 U.K.firms experiencing relative stock return decline during 1987–93,we examine the impact of these factors as well as other controlfactors on their turnaround strategies. Strategy choices duringthe decline year and two post-decline years are modelled withlogit regressions. Our results show that turnaround strategychoices are significantly influenced by both agency and controlvariables. While there is agreement among stakeholders on certainstrategies there is also evidence of conflict of interests amongthem. Thereis further evidence of shifting coalitions of stakeholdersfor or against certain strategies.