The Relation Between Stock Repurchase And Ownership Structure In France

Abstract

The aim of this article is to study the relationship between the type of shareholders of French companies and their stock repurchase policy. According to the financial theory, the presence of institutional investors negatively influences the policy of purchasing the fact of preference of these investors over the reinvestment projects. The theoretical hypotheses of interest alignment and entrenchment have been used to justify the relationship between management stockholding and repurchasing policy. We have tested the validity of our hypotheses on a sample of 77 French companies during 2003-2008. The results have shown that the institutional investors affect negatively the repurchase, which can explain the priority of these latter for dividends compared to repurchasing and with holding the profit to invest it again. Moreover, we have found a positive relationship between the management stockholding and the repurchase, which has been explained by the power of entrenchment that can perform the repurchase by raising the stockholding percentage of managers who repurchase the stocks.