Ultimate owner and risk of company performance

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the links between a company’s ultimate owner and the risk involved with financial performance. The study tests hypotheses on the relation between ultimate ownership origin and risk of return on assets. The research adopts cross-sectional data from a unique sample of 32,614 companies across 43 European countries with ultimate owners from 105 countries. The results indicate that the domestic ultimate owner is, in general, less likely to be a risk-taker than overseas investors. The research develops the nature of ownership-performance relations in the specific economic context of Europe. The results add robust evidence on attitudes towards performance risk of Europe wide ultimate owners.