Estrutura de propriedade e qualidade da governança corporativa: uma análise da empresa brasileira

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between ownership structure and corporate governance quality in the largest public companies in Brazil. The literature indicates that shareholders pursue higher stakes to increase monitoring on the management and/or obtaining private benefits of control. The different interests of shareholders, depending on their shareholdings’ position and their nature can affect the governance quality of companies, suggesting the hypothesis that the ownership structure is affecting the level of adoption of voluntary corporate governance practices by public companies from Brazil, according to the purpose of the expropriation effect and the substitution effect. The sample included 85 of the 100 largest companies listed on the BM&FBovespa in the period between 2010 and 2013. We measured he corporate governance quality by an index composed of 28 recommended practices on the main codes of good corporate governance practices in Brazil – Índice de Qualidade da Governança Corporativa (IQGC). We analyzed the ownership structure from ownership concentration, nature of the principal shareholders and corporate control characteristics. The relationship between the variables of ownership structure and the IQGC was tested via regression analyzes, using three econometric modeling: ordinary least squares, generalized least squares and generalized method of moments systemic. The estimates revealed that the concentration of ownership and control affect negatively the IQGC, especially in high levels of concentration. About the nature of principal shareholders, the IQGC is lower when there is a higher share of another company or persons in control of the companies, compared with other types of shareholders. The analysis of the shareholding control corroborates with previous analyzes, indicating that the voting and cash flow rights of controller shareholders and the control exercised by another company or a family are related with less IQGC. Moreover, the dispersed ownership and the absence of a majority shareholder are associated with increasing the corporate governance quality, while the separation between voting rights and cash flow rights of both main and controller shareholders do not affects the IQGC. These results suggest that corporate governance quality of the largest public companies in Brazil depends of their ownership structure. The negative relationship between ownership concentration and the presence of a controlling shareholder with IQGC is more compatible with the substitution effect, indicating that controlling shareholders may be using his power over the management as a substitute for other voluntary practices of corporate governance, although one cannot exclude a possible expropriation. The negative relationship between the IQGC and the control exerted by corporate groups and families may be reflective of the strategic interests of these shareholders, suggesting the effect of expropriation, or just a consequence of the effect substitution because their most control power.