The impact of institutional blockholders on voluntary disclosure and transparency : the case of Egypt

Abstract EN

Disclosure and transparency are crucial elements in the improvement of overall corporate governance.

Disclosure is a very important mean of communication between management and outside investors.

This study investigates how institutional blockholders impact levels of voluntary disclosure released in annual reports of some of the most active companies in the Egyptian Stock Exchange.

The results generated by the study did support a significant positive impact of institutional blockholders on voluntary disclosure and transparency.

It also found that this impact is due to two types of institutional blockholders’ ownership: low institutional ownership defined as those owning from five to twenty percent and controlling institutions defined as those owning more than fifty percent of a company’s shares.

This indicates that concentrated ownership can be viewed as a monitoring mechanism in an emerging market like Egypt.

According to the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to explore the impact of different categories of blockholders; categorized by the size of their block; on levels of voluntary disclosure in Egypt.