Analysis On The Influence Of The Ownership Structure On The Dividend Policy Of Listed Companies In China

The dividend policy is a major financial decision. It is the key of survival and development of listed companies. Because the dividend policy is closely related to stockholders'own benefit, stockholders pay attention to the dividend policy of listed companies and affect the dividend policy by certain way. It is being in a period of the reform of ownership disseverance in our country. Because a large number of non-circulation stocks existed, the formulation of the dividend policy in our country is not on the basis of rationalization. In the process of gradual realization of the entire circulation stocks, the research of the influence of the ownership structure on the dividend policy of listed companies in China is extremely significant.The problem of ownership disseverance not yet completely solved in our country. The different benefit main bodies participate in the formulation of the dividend policy in listed companies by different ways. The provision of the cash dividends reflects the relations of major stockholders and minor stockholders. It also reflects the relations of stockholders and managers. Our research pay attention to combine the ownership structure in our country with the research results of other countries to analyze the dividend policy in China.This article includes seven chapters.Chapter One: the introduction. This chapter includes objective, method, content of the research. It has a brief review to the dividend policy theory. Our research makes an empirical study on the relationship of the ownership structure and the dividend policy. The empirical study uses SPSS 13.0 to complete. The data of listed companies come from www.see.com.cn, www.szse.cn and www.cninfo.com.cn.Chapter Two: the general situation of dividend policy of listed companies in China.Up to December 31, 2004, there are 1318 listed companies in our country, not including listed companies whose information is incomplete. This article takes the 1318 listed companies as a sample. Because non-profit companies do not need to provide cash dividends, this article only includes profit companies. There are 1123 profit listed companies in 2004 and there are 1043 profit listed companies in 2005.The research indicates that, the majority of profit companies are willing to provide cash dividend in the situation of abundant cash. But more than a half of companies provide less than 0.1 Yuan.Chapter Three: the influence of the ownership concentration on the dividend policy.The research results show that, there are more than 35% listed companies whose percentage of the first major stockholder is beyond 50%. Because ownership relative concentration is high, even if the percentage of the first major stockholder is less than or equal to 50%, the first major stockholders also can control the listed companies.The research indicates that, the relationship between the percentage of the first major stockholder and cash dividend per share is about the type of"U". When the ownership relative concentration is in 30-40, average cash dividend per share and average payout ratio both are maximums. The relationship between herfindahl index and payout ratio is about the type of fallen"U".Chapter Four: the influence of the stockholder structure on the dividend policy.Tradable stockholders in our country prefer the capital gains and ignore the company's dividend policy. This research concludes that the profit in the listed companies with state shares has no difference from the profit in the listed companies without state shares. The percentage of profit companies in listed companies with legal-person shares is more than the percentage of profit companies in listed companies without legal-person shares. The percentage of tradable shares is negatively related to payout ratio.Chapter Five: Regression analysis on the influence of the factors on the dividend policy.The multiple regression analysis show that, the percentage of the first major stockholder, the percentage of the second major stockholder, the percentage of the third major stockholder, the ownership concentration are positively related to cash dividend per share and payout ratio. The percentage of tradable shares, the percentage of state shares, the percentage of legal-person shares are negatively related to cash dividend per share and payout ratio. The influence of each factor on cash dividend per share is more significant than the influence of each factor on payout ratio. Although there are many factors related to the dividend policy, there are only a little factors remained after the step-regression. The factors remained are different from each other.Chapter Six: the influence of the other factors on the dividend policy.Up to December 31, 2005, there are 184 listed companies in our country having been reformed. The research indicates that, the reform of ownership disseverance can not improve profit. The cash dividend per share and payout ratio in the companies having been reformed is higher than before. The percentage of tradable shares in the listed companies which had been reformed rises than before.This research includes the influence of the industry on the dividend policy. According to the CSRC standard, listed companies are divided into 13 kinds. The research shows that, the cash dividend per share in the monopoly industry is more than it in other industry.Chapter Seven: the conclusion. This chapter makes a summary of conclusions in this research and points out the differences from other researches.I hope this research is useful for the healthy development of the stock market in China.