In this paper, we show that ownership structures vary considerably across Europe, and that the dominant form of ownership is not necessarily the most efficient one. These findings are in contradiction to similar research based on US samples. The results also demonstrate that firms without a...

We analyze the structure and evolution of the allocation of decision and control rights in venture capital contracts by using a sample of 464 contracts between venture capitalists (VC) and portfolio firms from Germany. We focus on the evolution of control and decisions rights along three time...

We analyze the degree of contract completeness with respect to staging of venture capital investments using a hand-collected German data set of contract data from 464 rounds into 290 entrepreneurial firms. We distinguish three forms of staging (pure milestone financing, pure round financing and...

(VF)Cet article se propose de vérifier, du point de vue de la théorie positive de l’agence, si la décision des entreprises de recourir à une augmentation de capital réservée aux salariés est influencée par la prise en compte par les dirigeants des intérêts des actionnaires et de la...

We study the relationship between liquid asset holding and the pattern of share ownership and control structures within the firm. We explore these issues using a data set of Belgian firms that is particularly well suited to studying the institutions of control oriented finance. The data include...

In this paper, we investigate the relation between cash flow, debt, investment and performance according to whether the firm is multinational (versus domestic), keiretsu (versus independent) or both multinational and keiretsu. Using a Japanese sample of 3024 firm-year observations in the period...

This paper investigates the financial characteristics and changes in performance of French companies involved in a leveraged buy-out. The empirical study covers a sample of 161 MBOs in France from 1988 to 1994. The acquired firms outperform their counterparts in the same sector of activity...

Les acquisitions de sociétés à l'aide d'un holding endetté, ou leverage buy-outs (LBO), ont connu un essor remarquable aux Etats-Unis (depuis les années 1970) et en Europe (à partir des années 1980). Ces opérations permettent aux acquéreurs (capital-investisseurs, personnes...

(VF)Depuis 1995, en France, nous assistons à l’institutionnalisation d’un corps de règles souvent qualifié de « meilleures pratiques » de gouvernance d’entreprise. Ces pratiques sont d’inspiration anglo-saxonne et mettent fortement l’accent sur des mécanismes censés réduire les...

The differences between the information used for the pre-investment valuation and the valuation methods used by venture capital investors in five countries (US, UK, France, Belgium and Holland) are empirically studied. The analysis is based on postal questionnaire surveys of representative...