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Journal of Banking & Finance Vol. 28 No. 10 2004

Do government-linked companies underperform?

Fang Feng1; Qian Sun2; Wilson H. S. Tong3

1 APS Asset Management, 6 Temasek Boulevard, #23-01, Singapore 038986, Singapore · 2 Nanyang Technological University · 3 Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Abstract

Our comprehensive study of 30 Singapore government-linked companies (GLCs) covering the period 1964 to1998 shows that share issue privatization has some positive impacts on their performance. However, there was no evidence that the GLCs were less profitable than a selected group of non-GLCs that match by size and industry. Taking a buy-and-hold strategy, we found that GLC stocks provide statistically equivalent returns relative to market or other control sample returns over various investment horizons of up to four years. Given that GLCs also perform as well as averages for the market and industry up to five years before their listing, we argue that Singapore's government-owned enterprises are comparable to privately run enterprises in efficiency.

DOI
10.1016/j.jbankfin.2003.10.012
Volume
28
Issue
10
Pages
2461-2492
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref bibtex:phds-export.bib

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