ABSTRACT
Becht and Mayer, 2001). Not only does the concentration of control differ between these countries, but so does the nature of ownership: Germany is characterized by intercorporate equity relations and family control, whereas institutional shareholders hold most of the voting rights in the United Kingdom. Also, German firms are on average more than 50 years old when they are floated, whereas U.K. initial public offerings (IPOs) are only 12 years old. It comes as a surprise that such substantial
differences are still observable, especially in the wake of high product-market competition and economic globalization. This study contributes to a better understanding of the reasons for the differences in control between Germany and the United Kingdom. To this aim, we analyze a unique database of recently floated German and U.K. firms containing detailed data on the control structure for a period of up to six years after the IPO.
