Sisira R.N. Colombage

Block shareholder identity and firm performance in New Zealand

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine whether the influence of block ownership on firm performance depends on the identity of the largest investor.Design/methodology/approach – The authors analyse the data for New Zealand companies for the period from 2002 to 2007 and develop multiple regression models which test the influence of block ownership on firm performance subject to the identity of the investor. A two‐stage least square approach is employed to test the effect of possible reverse causality between block ownership and firm performance on the relationship found in multiple regression models.Findings – The authors find that the concentrated ownership has a positive, albeit decreasing, association with firm performance. This relationship is conditioned on the identity of the largest investor. Those companies whose block investors were financial institutions performed better than their peers. The superior influence of financial investors on corporate performance did not disappear even when...

Stock market, tax revenue and economic growth: A case-study of Malaysia

This paper empirically tests Levines [1] endogenous growth model, which suggests that stock market and tax policy jointly affect economic growth. Following Levine [1], tax or impeding financial market activities have the potential to lower per capita growth rate. Using monthly data from 1980 to 2008, the relationship between tax revenue, stock market as proxies by direct tax revenue and KLCI respectively and economic growth in Malaysia is modeled using the Granger causality and VECM framework. Results support Levines theory and reveal that over the sample period both tax revenue and stock market affect pattern of economic growth in Malaysia. These findings indicate that strong growth can be achieved through booming of stock market activities and the high revenue collection. Fiscal policy authorities in Malaysia will find these results useful.

Does the Post-Acquisition Performance of Bidding Firms Depend on the Organizational Form of Targets Acquired?

A number of theoretical arguments such as corporate monitoring hypothesis, liquidity hypothesis and managerial motive hypothesis propose that the acquisitions of private targets are more value creating than the acquisitions of public targets. Using two large samples of acquirers of public targets and acquirers of private targets, we examine the post-acquisition operating performance of Australian bidders. The excess returns earned by these two samples during the announcement period reveal that the market perceives the acquisitions of private targets as value creating decisions while having a neutral view on the acquisitions of public targets. These findings corroborate existing evidence in the area while providing support for the relevant theories. An analysis of acquisition year financial profiles reveals that the acquirers of public targets are much larger in size, highly profitable and cash rich than the acquirers of private targets. Compared with acquisition-year performance, acquirers of public targets were able to maintain their performance in the post-acquisition years while the acquirers of private targets were able to show a significant improvement. However, when the industry-adjusted abnormal performance was analyzed, it was found that the former group outperformed their industry peers as well as the latter group by a significant margin. A number of bid and firm characteristics were found to have differential influences on the performance of two types of acquirers. Our sensitivity analyses revealed that the influences of bid and firm characteristics are somewhat sensitive to the benchmark used to generate abnormal performance and the scaling factor used to calculate performance measures.

Asymmetry of Information and the Finance-Growth Nexus in Emerging Markets: Empirical Evidence Using Panel VECM Analysis

This paper tests both the short and long term relationship between the real GDP, the equity amounts outstanding, the corporate bond amounts outstanding and bank credit to the private sector for five emerging markets. In particular, the finance-growth nexus is analysed with data collected from China, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand between 1994 and 2009 using panel VECM analysis. The cointegration technique is then used to examine the long run behavior based on the assumption that all the variables involved have the same degree of integration and the error correction model (ECM) and the Wald test are employed to determine the direction of causality. The empirical results suggest the existence of a stable relationship in the direction from economic growth to financial market development that is consistent with the information asymmetry arguments for emerging markets. The findings have implications for financial and economic policy makers and enable these stakeholders to determine which sectors should be encouraged to achieve overall economic growth and development. The results are also useful to investors as they show the level of the intensity of information asymmetry on which these relationships might vary in both the short and long run.