Who Controls East Asian Corporations—and the Implications for Legal Reform

Claessens, Stijn ; Djankov, Simeon ; Lang, Larry H. P.

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: CAPITAL MARKETS;    COMPANY;    CONGLOMERATES;    CORPORATE CONTROL;    CORPORATE GOVERNANCE;   

RP-ID  :  26846

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This Note reports an analysis ofultimate control in nearly 3,000 publicly traded companiesin December 1996-before the financial crisis-in nine EastAsian economies: Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, the Republicof Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan(China), and Thailand. The analysis shows that the tenlargest families in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailandcontrol half the corporate sector (in terms of marketcapitalization), while the ten largest in Hong Kong andKorea control about a third (figure 1). More extreme, inIndonesia and the Philippines ultimate control of about 17percent of market capitalization can be traced to a singlefamily. While the analysis shows that ownershipconcentration in these countries is in keeping with levelsin other developing and some industrial countries, itsfindings shed light on the viability and vulnerability ofcorporate governance structures in East Asia. Theconcentration of corporate wealth and the tight linksbetween corporations and government may have impeded legaland regulatory development, directly or indirectly. Tocreate incentives for better governance, East Asiangovernments may have to promote more competition, even bybreaking up conglomerates, and curtail related party lendingby restricting ownership of banks.