Eleuterio Vallelado González

Nonfinancial Companies as Large Shareholders Alleviate Financial Constraints of Brazilian Firm

We analyze whether financial constraints of Brazilian firms are alleviated by ownership structure. More specifically, we study whether the presence of nonfinancial firms as shareholders of Brazilian firm mitigates financial constraints. We find that the presence of nonfinancial firms as significant shareholders reduces financial constraints, probably because such blockholders are able to reduce asymmetric information problems that are at the origin of financial constraints. This result indicates that the changes in the corporate ownership of the Brazilian firms, achieved within the countrys structural changes, have been positive for firm investment and have contributed to the development of Brazil.

OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE AND GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES AS DETERMINANTS OF BANK DEBT Evidence from Chilean Companies

Our aim is to analyze the type of lender and the debt maturity of Chilean firms as a function of their ownership structure and their growth opportunities. We perform the empirical analysis using an unbalanced panel data of 169 firms from 1990 to 2001. Our results show that Chilean firms with growth opportunities, ownership concentration, and a need for external funds issue short‐term bank debt to finance their new investments. This financing source is an efficient mechanism in Chile to alleviate agency and asymmetric information problems. The Chilean institutional environment influences firms’ decisions on banking debt.

Oportunidades de Crecimiento y Estructura de Propiedad como Determinantes del Apalancamiento de las Empresas Españolas

RESUMEN Nuestro objetivo es analizar la decisión de endeudamiento de las empresas españolas, considerando los problemas de información asimétrica, los costes de agencia y la estructura de propiedad. Las hipótesis se establecen teniendo en cuenta el entorno institucional al que pertenecen las empresas. Para el análisis se utiliza un panel de datos incompleto de 111 empresas adquiridas durante los años 1991–2001. Los resultados obtenidos indican que: i) La elevada concentración accionarial de las empresas españolas favorece el uso de la deuda para financiar sus oportunidades de crecimiento; ii) Las empresas con déficit de fondos recurren preferentemente, a los recursos externos mientras cuenten con una estructura de propiedad mayoritaria; iii) Las empresas cotizadas mantienen una velocidad de ajuste a su ratio de endeudamiento óptima distinta a la de las empresas no cotizadas y a la de las empresas de otros países.

Financial Constraints for Investment in Brazil

The purpose of this work is to verify the existence of financial constraints for investment in Brazil, an emerging market with growing international visibility. Using panel data methodology and GMM, we estimate dynamic investment models based on the Euler equation and Tobin’s q for a panel dataset of 199 Brazilian nonfinancial firms for the time period 1995-2006. Our findings show that Brazilian firms face financial constraints since their investment depend on internally generated funds. Results are robust to different investment models based on the Euler equation, while controlling for growth opportunities. Significant investment-cash flow sensitivity has been found for the whole sample of firms. Subsamples of firms considered as under financial constraints, according to dividend payout and equity issuance policies, have higher investment-cash flow sensitivity. Investment-cash flow sensitivity of financially constrained firms in Brazil is higher than that in the UK and in Romania, a transition economy. These results extend empirical evidence of financial constraints in Brazil.

Possível estratégia de ativismo de fundos de pensão no Brasil

Shareholder activism can be seen as an active behavior of shareholders when they start to impose their needs to the company direction. In different markets, mainly in usa, individual and institutional shareholders have used activism strategies with the purpose of defending their interests. This work has as main objective showing facts, in the Brazilian market, that may indicative the existence of an activism strategy adopted by the pension funds in Brazil. As result it can be mentioned the growing participation of such funds in the voting capital of companies in the period 1995-2002. Besides that, it is also shown a comparative analysis of some performance indices of companies with and without such strong institutional presence in the voting capital.