This paper examines the unification of non-voting preference shares into a one share-one vote structure using a sample of all German dual-class companies from 1987 until 2003. We test several hypotheses with regard to the reasons for the abolition of preference shares. First, as the separation...

Empirical evidence is offered about the change in ownership structure following Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) and its impact on the long-term stock performance of family-owned firms in Germany. The data analyzed include 105 IPOs of founding family-owned firms floated between January 1970 and...

This paper examines minority squeeze-outs and their regulation in Germany, a country where majority shareholders have extensively used this tool since its introduction in 2002. Using unique data on court rulings and compensations, we analyze a sample of 324 squeeze-outs of publicly listed...