SMEs� Delisting Decisions on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM)family Holders and Financial Crisis

Zusammenfassung

The aim of this study is to analyze the determinants of delisting decisions on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in London (United Kingdom) for Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), examining the differences between family and non-family firms in addition to the impact of the financial crisis. We examine the SMEs listed on the AIM during the period 1999-2012. We propose a probit model and a survival analysis (Cox�s proportional hazard model) to estimate the probability that a firm makes a delisting decision. The advantage of the Cox proportional hazard model over other techniques is that it models the expected time to failure. In this study, failure is the delisting decision. Our findings show that the higher the percentage of ownership held by family holders, the lower the probability of delisting on the AIM. The influence of family holders works in accordance with their higher managerial monitoring and long-term aims and is contrary to the hypothesis that they exploit private information in a delisting decision to expropriate minority shareholders. Additionally, larger firms with higher levels of ROA are more likely to delist. The family holders� influence on the delisting decision is maintained during the crisis period, working in tandem with strong corporate governance in family business and higher financial restrictions (higher cost of equity and debt issues and bank debt).