Disentangling the driving force of pyramidal firms' capital structure: a new perspective

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to disentangle the driving force of pyramidal firms' capital structure from nine East Asian economies. Design/methodology/approach: To disentangle the driving force, this paper develops a new theoretical framework for the pyramidal firms'. Using panel regression, the new theoretical framework is tested on a set of 1,433 pyramidal firms covering a period from 1992 to 1997. Findings: The regression results reveal that the separation of cash flow rights and control rights in the pyramidal firms have led to high usage of leverage for the purpose of preserving the ultimate owners' (UO) dominance in the pyramidal firms that he or she controls. Based on the findings, the study concludes that the actual driving force of the pyramidal firms' capital structure is the UO non‐dilution entrenchment motive. Originality/value: The main contribution of this paper is the new theoretical framework developed which enable us to disentangle the driving force behind pyramid firm's capital structure

Pecking order theory of capital structure: empirical evidence from dynamic panel data

This paper tests the relation between profit and long term debt as well as the relation between profit and total debt in South Africa. This paper specifies a dynamic panel model and uses generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation technique which gives better results. The results show that profit has significance negative relation with long-term debt. Similarly, profit has significant negative relation with total debt. The results support the pecking order theory and signify the presence of asymmetric information problem between firm and its financiers. Besides, the results imply need to further develop the capital market in order to minimize information asymmetry costs associated with raising external capital. Moreover, evidence of trade-off theory is also present in the results

Derivatives trading and volatility spill-over: evidence from a developing derivatives market

The objective of the paper is to ascertain the influence of shares derivatives trading on the Malaysian stock market. Johansen-Juselius’ co-integration test reveals signs of increasing integration between these cash and futures markets over time. The Granger causality test indicates that the stock index futures Granger causes the cash index with no feedback in the reverse direction during periods of financial crisis and recovery. Significantly observable during the period was high participation of foreign investors in the futures market. The increase in the number of foreign investors in the futures market dramatically increases the herding activities in futures market trading. The findings suggest that the transmission of information from the futures market to the cash market could, to a certain extent, during a period of “bad economy”, be due to herding by foreign investors

Determinants of corporate demand for Islamic insurance in Malaysia

This study is the first attempt to empirically investigate the determinants of corporate demand for Islamic insurance (takaful) using data from main board of public listed companies at Bursa Malaysia. Factors like leverage, growth opportunities, expected bankruptcy costs, company size, managerial ownership, tax considerations and regulated effects have been examined in this study. The data covers a five-year period from year 2002 – 2006. The findings show that leverage, expected bankruptcy costs, tax considerations, company size, and managerial ownership play an important role in determining the corporate demand for Islamic insurance in Malaysia. Our conclusions are robust to alternative specifications model of GLS with Fixed Effects that help us to control for unobservable heterogeneity

Institutional infrastructure and economic performance: dynamic panel data evidence

This paper attempts to empirically investigate the link between institutional quality and economic performance in a group of 72 countries during 1980–2001, using dynamic panel data analysis. Five institutional indicators that represent the overall institutional infrastructures of an economy are employed, namely corruption, rule of law, bureaucracy, repudiation of contracts and risk of expropriation. The empirical results demonstrate that institutions’ variables are statistically significant determinants of economic performance. The findings also suggest that the effects of institutional quality vary according to the level of economic development, where institutions are more responsive in the low-income and middle-income countries. In terms of specific effect of institutional development, the results reveal that the higher level of rule of law is most potent in delivering long-run economic benefits

Wealth Effect Of International Investment Announcements: Evidence From Developing Market

This research provides evidence on the efficiency of one of the fastest developing and largest emerging securities market (Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange, KLSE) in the Asia Pacific rim with respect to foreign investment announcements. Specifically, our study focuses on international investment announcements made in 1990 through 2000 for firms listed on the main board of the KLSE of Malaysia. The result shows that the announcements of foreign investment produce a significant positive daily abnormal return surrounding the event period. This implies that foreign investment announcements made by listed Malaysian firms do contain new relevant information which may creates market movements. At the same time, since the reaction is significantly positive, this implies that investors generally favor the international investment efforts of Malaysian firms listed at KLSE. In addition, it is also discovered that the economic development of the target country does influence the wealth creation process

Debt and cash flow relationship in pecking order theory of corporate financing: dynamic panel evidence

The paper investigates relationship between cash flow and debt. The panel generalized method of moment results reveal that cash flow is negatively related to both long term debt and total debt ratios. Our results support the pecking order theory of corporate financing and imply that there is a need for further development of the capital market to minimize the information asymmetry problem between the firms and the firms’ financiers, to provide firms with easier access to debt and equity financing

Pyramidal structure, firm capital structure exploitation and ultimate owners' dominance

In this paper we investigate how pyramid structure, separating cash flow rights and control rights, allows ultimate owners to control the company's resources for the creation of private benefits and to avoid punishment for such conduct. Empirical tests are conducted using three-stage least squares regression. The estimated results provide support for the hypotheses proposed that the separation of cash flow rights and control rights have led to the use of excess leverage among pyramidal companies to preserve ultimate owners' control. High levels of leverage, affect the firm's valuation negatively because of the potential for financial distress. Thus, our findings may provide one additional explanation for the severity of the decrease in corporate value among the pyramidal companies in Malaysia as pointed out in the studies of Claessens et al. (2002), Lins (2003), and Lemmon and Lins (2003). Secondly, the empirical evidence from this study provides insight into the forces that influence corporate valuation of firms in developed countries particularly those that have pyramidal structure

The impact of monetary policy on bank lending rate in South Africa

The pass-through of the policy rates to bank lending rate is an important subject matter because it measures the effectiveness of monetary policy to control inflation or stabilize the economy. This study investigates the long-run interest rate pass-through of the money market rate to the bank lending rate and asymmetric adjustment of the bank lending rate. The study applies the momentum threshold autoregressive and asymmetric error correction models. The asymmetric error correction results reveal that bank lending rate adjusts to a decrease in the money market rate in South Africa. The findings suggest that the South African commercial banks adjust their lending rate downward but the lending rate appears rigid upward, which supports the customer reaction hypothesis

Board of Commissioners’ Structure, Ownership Retention, and IPO Underpricing: Evidence from Indonesia

This research examines how the board of commissioners' structure and ownership retention affect IPO underpricing in Indonesia. In this study, we have examined the following three aspects: the number of board of commissioners, percentage of independent commissioners, and percentage of female commissioners. In total, 186 Indonesian companies that have conducted IPO from 2001 to 2016 were included in this study. This study uses multiple regressions to test the hypothesis. Our findings show that ownership retention has a negative implication on underpricing. Furthermore, the number of board of commissioners and independent commissioners has also been determined to reduce the level of underpricing. However, female commissioners were found to have no significant effect on IPO underpricing; furthermore, it demonstrated no significant effect in reducing the level of underpricing. These results show that higher ownership retention, a smaller number of board members, and a higher percentage of independent commissioners can reduce IPO underpricing.JEL Classification: G30, G32How to Cite:Setiawan, D., Prabowo, M. A., Trinugroho, I., & Noordin, B. A. A. (2021). Board of Commissioners’ Structure, Ownership Retention, and IPO Underpricing: Evidence from Indonesia. Etikonomi, 20(1), 185 – 200. https://doi.org/10.15408/etk.v20i1.19156