This paper focuses on dominant owners' use of leverage to finance their blockholdings and its relationship to dividend policy. We postulate that blockholder leverage may impact payout policy, in particular when earnings are hit by a negative shock. We use panel data for France where blockholders...

This paper focuses on dominant owners' use of leverage to finance their blockholdings and its relationship to dividend policy. We postulate that blockholder leverage may impact payout policy, in particular when earnings are hit by a negative shock. We use panel data for France where blockholders...

A controlling shareholder can pledge shares to secure personal loans while retaining control of the firm, but share pledging increases the risk of a margin call and the possibility of losing control of the firm. We investigate how share pledging by controlling shareholders influences the...