Book contents
- The European Corporation
- The European Corporation
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Anglo-Saxon Countries
- 2 The United Kingdom
- Part II Central European Countries
- Part III Scandinavian Countries
- Part IV Mediterranean Countries
- Part V European Transition Countries
- References
- Index
2 - The United Kingdom
from Part I - Anglo-Saxon Countries
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2023
- The European Corporation
- The European Corporation
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Anglo-Saxon Countries
- 2 The United Kingdom
- Part II Central European Countries
- Part III Scandinavian Countries
- Part IV Mediterranean Countries
- Part V European Transition Countries
- References
- Index
Summary
The United Kingdom was the first country to develop a code of best practice of corporate governance. This chapter gives a brief overview of UK corporate governance regulation, including recent reforms, followed by a discussion of the listing and disclosure rules. It then performs an empirical study of the control and ownership of the top 20, top 100 and the listed UK companies for two distinct points in time, i.e. the 1990s and 2018–2019. The following patterns emerge. Over the period ranging from the late 1990s to 2018–2019, the percentage of listed companies in the top 20 and top 100 suffered a substantial decrease. In contrast, the percentage of fully owned subsidiaries among the top UK companies shot up from virtually nil to more than half of such companies. Still, the average listed UK company remains widely held in 2018–2019 (Goergen and Renneboog, 2001). The chapter then proceeds by identifying potential determinants explaining the observed ownership changes. The chapter concludes with a number of reflections on how UK corporate ownership and control may change during the post-Brexit period.
Keywords
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- The European CorporationOwnership and Control after 25 Years of Corporate Governance Reforms, pp. 33 - 52Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023