Shareholder Control

  • 详情 A regulatory increase in minority shareholders’ control over corporate decisions and shareholder value
    Using a 2004 Chinese securities regulation that required equity offering proposals and other major corporate decisions to seek the separate approval of minority shareholders, we empirically test the effect of a regulatory increase in minority shareholders’ control over corporate decisions on shareholder value. While the overall stock market reaction to the announcement of the regulation is insignificant, the stock market reaction is more positive for firms with higher institutional (especially mutual fund) block ownership and more negative for firms with higher individual block ownership. The regulation helps deter management from submitting value decreasing equity offering proposals, especially for firms with higher mutual fund block ownership. In addition, value reducing equity offering proposals submitted in the post-regulation period are more likely to be vetoed in firms with higher block ownership of institutional and individual minority shareholders. Overall, our results suggest that the 2004 regulation increases shareholder value, especially in firms with higher mutual fund block ownership.