STATE OWNERSHIP AND THE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF PRIVATIZED BANKS: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS James A. Verbrugge William L. Megginson Wanda L. Owens* June 1999 Presented at the World Bank/Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Conference on Banking Privatization, Washington, DC, March 15th & 16th , 1999. *The University of Georgia, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Georgia, respectively. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the University of Oklahoma’s Michael F. Price College of Business and of the University of Georgia Research Foundation in acquiring the date used in this study. This paper benefited from comments received at the World Bank/FRB Dallas conference in Washington and at the 1999 European Financial Management Association meeting in Barcelona. We are also grateful for comments received on a directlyrelated paper from participants at the 1998 Financial Management Association and 1999 American Finance Association annual meetings, the 1998 NYSE/Paris Bourse conference on Global Equity Markets, the 1999 Conference on Privatization and the Kuwaiti Economy in the Next Century, and seminars at the World Bank, the City University Business School (London), London Guildhall University, and the University of Oklahoma. We also thank Bernardo Bortolotti, Narjess Boubakri, Maria Boutchkova, Jean-Claude Cosset, Michael DeWally, Han Kim, Kojo Menyah, Rob Nash, John Nellis, Jeff Netter, Enrico Perotti, and Nemat Shafik for their specific comments and recommendations. Please address correspondence to: William L. Megginson Professor & Rainbolt Chair in Finance Michael F. Price College of Business 307 West Brooks, 205A Adams Hall University of Oklahoma Norman, OK 73019-4005 Tel: (405) 325-2058 Fax: (405) 325-1957 [email protected] STATE OWNERSHIP AND THE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF PRIVATIZED BANKS: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS Abstract This study investigates bank privatizations that use public security offerings as the divestment mechanism. We discuss the terms of 58 initial unseasoned and 34 seasoned offerings involving 65 banks from 12 high information economies and 13 emerging economies. We find that bank IPOs tend to be very large, with a median offering size of nearly $300 million in high information economies and $140 million in emerging economies. We document significant positive average (median) initial returns of 30.5% (15.9%) for investors, but find that seasoned issues are not significantly underpriced. We document limited improvement in bank profitability, operating efficiency, leverage and non-interest revenue after privatization. Substantial government ownership of banks remains even after privatization, and in only a few cases is the government’s stake completely eliminated at the IPO stage, or even in subsequent seasoned offerings. We suggest that continued significant government ownership of banks raises serious problems for establishing market-oriented governance and decision-making systems in the banks. 3 STATE OWNERSHIP AND THE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF PRIVATIZED BANKS: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS 1. Introduction During the past fifteen years, a large number of commercial banks around the world have been privatized by governments through public offerings of shares. In almost every case, this represented a fundamental break with a national past that emphasized the strategic role of commercial banking in funding the nation’s economic development, and the national government’s key role in planning and directing that development. Unlike privatizations of non-financial firms, where a substantial body of significant literature and empirical evidence has emerged,1 relatively little is known about bank privatizations around the world. This is somewhat surprising since banks, or least the banking function, is indispensable in all economies. At the same time, it is not unexpected since data on banks that have been privatized are so difficult to obtain, especially regarding financial performance before and after privatization. Furthermore, banks have always been one of the favorite tools of politicians and governments whereby chosen sectors, industries and firms could receive funding on highly favorable terms, presumably in a manner consistent with the then prevailing objective of the government in power. As such, to the extent that bank financial statements are available, they are even more opaque than usual for an industry that under the best of circumstances suffers from lack of transparency in financial reporting. 1 This literature is surveyed in Megginson and Netter (1998), and this paper is available for downloading at www.nyse.com/public/thenyse/1e/1e4/wp98.05.htm. Other privatizationrelated working or published papers can be downloaded from http://cbaweb.ou.edu/~wmeggins. 4 In this paper, we empirically examine how the financial performance of a bank changes after being fully or partially privatized via a public share offering, and test whether there appear to be differential responses across countries. We also examine whether investors who purchase the shares of such banks earn positive risk-adjusted abnormal returns initially (at the time of the offering). Our findings of significant improvements in operating efficiency and profitability after privatization will help governments develop divestment strategies that incorporate appropriate incentives and rewards for managerial performance, while our short and long-run return findings will help investment bankers properly assess demand for future bank privatizations and will help investors determine whether they should participate in these often enormous share sales. At the same time, we provide an analysis of why public share issue privatization may not be as effective a vehicle for bank privatization as it is for privatization in the non-financial sector. The paper proceeds as follows. Section 2 contains a brief overview of the bank privatization literature and a discussion of the role of banking in a nation’s economy. Motives for bank privatization are presented in Section 3. Descriptive information on the number and size of share issue privatizations (SIPs) is reported in Section 4. An analysis of pre and postprivatization financial and operating performance is provided in Section 5. In Section 6, we examine the initial returns earned by investors in SIPs, while an analysis of government ownership of banks before and after privatization is presented in Section 7. Section 8 contains an extensive discussion of some implications of our research effort. 2. The Literature on Bank Privatization and the Economic Role of Banking Regardless of where they are located, how they are organized, or the structure of their ownership, banks tend to perform three basic functions in any economic system. First, they play 5 a central role in the country’s payments system and also serve as a clearinghouse for payments. Second, they transform claims issued by borrowers into other claims that depositors, creditors, or owners are willing to hold. Third, banks provide a mechanism for evaluating, pricing and monitoring the credit granting function in an economy. Of course, the efficiency, safety, effectiveness and transparency of these functions varies widely across countries depending on, among other things, who owns the banks, how the credit-granting process is managed and to whom credit is granted, and the degree to which bank-issued claims are held with some confidence by the non-bank public. In the context of a country with a long history of state ownership of commercial banks — or even significant state influence over commercial banking — these efficiency, safety, and transparency concerns are often infinitely more complex and intractable than is more laissez-faire economies. The problems inherent in a state-owned banking industry have led many countries to at least consider privatizing state-owned banks. Wherever and however banks are privatized, they all face a common set of concerns and issues. These include: (1) the type of privatization process to utilize, (2) whether and how to break up the government-owned banking (monobank) system, (3) transferring ownership claims to the private (domestic or foreign) sector, (4) dealing with an extremely low-quality loan portfolio, much of which is in default (albeit likely to be unrecognized on a financial reporting basis), (5) ensuring an enhanced level of managerial talent in the system, and (6) ultimately attracting outside (often foreign) capital and expertise to the banking system. There is little doubt that the financial sector in general, and banking in particular, plays an important role in fostering the economic development of a nation. Rajan and Zingales (1998) 6 provide evidence supporting the positive influence of financial development on economic development by means of reducing the cost of external financing to firms. They find that financial development is especially important for the process of creating new firms in an economy. Levine and Zervos (1998) also provide evidence suggesting that banking efficiency is critically important to the development of an economy and that banking services are different from those provided by stock markets. In fact, an entire stream of research has now emerged documenting the critical importance of an efficient financial system to sustainable economic growth. Important recent papers in this literature are Demirgüς-Kunt and Maksimovic (1996), Levine (1997), Miller (1998), and Lev (1999). Related papers stress the importance of creating the proper legal and regulatory framework for encouraging the development of efficient, liquid banking and capital markets. This literature is largely encompassed in a series of articles by La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, and Shleifer (1999) and La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, Shleifer, and Vishny (1997, 1998, 1999). The basic themes that emerge from these research streams are that an efficient financial system is vital, and that it is very difficult to construct from scratch or in place of existing (typically less effective) systems, due to the determined opposition from entrenched parties. The most important source of opposition to development of a modern, non-politicized financial system is usually the state--and those with close ties to the existing power structure. This fact makes banking privatization at least as important as a tool of political economy as it is as a mechanism for banking reform. Ensuring a smooth shift from state-owned banks to private banks is difficult even in mixed capitalistic systems where only a few sectors, like banking, may have been nationalized. 7 Smooth shifts in the banking sector in economies that are virtually completely state-owned (transition economics) are devilishly difficult. A number of recent papers outline the special difficulties encountered by banks in these economies. Perotti (1993) shows that banks in these countries have a strong, perverse incentive to fund former debtors, although these state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are less efficient and more risky than private firms, because by doing so they gain the potential repayment of previous debts. This inevitably leads to lower productivity of investment and a greater concentration of risk. Furthermore, since privately-owned banks feel this incentive just as strongly as state-owned ones, merely privatizing the banking industry will not solve the problem. The incentive to subsidize former debtors is, however, magnified in the all-too-frequent case where the state retains significant influence over the banks or the debtor companies (or both) after these are nominally privatized. Perotti concludes that liquidation of economically-hopeless SOEs will generally be preferable to eternal subsidization, since this will both recognize the true value of the debt and remove the “debt overhang” from banks so they can increase their lending to the more dynamic private sector. Meyendorff and Snyder (1997) study the “transactional structures” of banking privatizations in central and eastern Europe, which they define as having three elements: (1) antecedent actions that determine the characteristics of the unit being privatized; (2) ownership transfer and governance after privatization; and (3) follow-on actions and ongoing government intervention. They note that most of the governments in the region made similar policy choices when they began privatizing their banking systems, which have proven highly influential over time. As examples, most governments chose not to seriously break up the socialist monobank system, and most severely restricted new competition — particularly from foreign banks. For 8 these reasons, the former monobanks retain dominant market shares in most of the transition economies almost a decade after reforms were initiated. Further, none of the politically-feasible ownership transfer methods (voucher privatization, insider sales) brought in new capital or talent, so all the region’s banking systems remain weak and noncompetitive. The prospect of EU membership in the foreseeable future does, however, offer some hope that true restructuring might begin soon. Berglof and Roland (1998) focus on the pernicious problem of soft budget constraints in transition economies. They demonstrate the pervasiveness of this problem, and show how difficult it is to effectively solve. Whenever governments directly or indirectly influence creditgranting decisions, soft budget constraints arise endogenously due to the government’s lack of credibility regarding liquidating a project (or SOE) rather than refinancing it. Hence, mechanisms for hardening the budget constraint require endogenously restoring the credibility of liquidation. The fact that this implies — in plain language — that a government must be willing to allow troubled SOEs to go bankrupt and/or workers to be restructured out of employment suggests just how painful true banking reform can often be. On the other hand, Schaffer (1998) presents evidence that the soft budget constraint may be less of a problem than is commonly assumed in transition economies, and that banks in particular enforce binding constraints on commercial customers. Those soft budget constraints that are observed are typically statesponsored (usually allowing firms to have large tax arrears), and are far worse in “slow reformers” (especially Russia) than in the faster reforming states of eastern Europe. Bonin and Wachtel (1998b) provide an excellent analysis of the difficulties of achieving market-based banking systems in transition economies. They emphasize that bank privatization 9 is only one step in the always painful process of disengaging the state from virtually complete control over the banking system. Finally, Saunders and Sommariva (1993)analyze the difficulties of transferring from state control to a market system with specific reference to Eastern Europe. They investigate alternative approaches for restructuring troubled commercial banks. Beginning with a pure bankruptcy approach, which they reject as a viable alternative, they address various restructuring approaches including recapitalization, “loan hospitals” (bad bank approach), and various types of debt-for-debt and equity-for-debt exchange. They also discuss the use of some of the approaches used in other countries, like the RTC for the savings and loan debacle in the United States. Their analysis demonstrates clearly the difficulty of managing and dealing with only one problem in the bank privatization process, namely the troubled loan issue in the monobank systems. In contrast to the nonfinancial sector, where there is now a well-established body of empirical literature on the effects of privatization [D’Souza and Megginson (1999)], the evidence on bank privatization is only beginning to emerge. Meyendorff and Snyder (1997) provide evidence on three case studies of bank privatization in Central Europe and Russia. They focus on the process of privatization used in these instances and are able to offer several policy-type conclusions such as the need to closely link privatization with recapitalization, the benefits of rapid privatization, the importance of effective new corporate governance and the positive influence of strategic foreign investors in the creation of a more efficient and healthy banking system. Bonin and Wachtel (1998a) provide both a thorough literature review and an empirical analysis of bank privatization activities in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. 10 Other evidence on the process of bank privatization in Eastern Europe is provided in Abarbanell and Bonin (1997), Abarbanell and Meyendorff (1997), Snyder and Kormendi (1997), Svejnar (1997), and Thorne (1993). These studies provide evidence of the difficulty of bank privatization in economies which are also transitioning from state-owned to private markets, making bank privatization even more difficult because of the problems of political instability, lack of banking expertise in the system (and in the economy), difficulties in assessing the depth of troubled loans (estimated as high as 50% of total loans in some cases), the problem of carving up the monobank system into a competitive system, and the inherent problem of placing a value on the organization to be privatized. .2 Verbrugge and Yantac (1999) provide some preliminary evidence on the process of bank privatization in Turkey where state-owned banks have been sold to various domestic commercial and industrial firms. As summarized above, it is clear that we know very little about some of the now standard questions asked in the empirical studies of non-financial privatization. That is, what are the favored approaches to bank privatization? What evidence is there on the pre versus postprivatization operating performance of privatized banks? What are the short-run and long-run returns to investors who acquire and hold shares in privatized banks? Are there differences in evidence depending on whether the bank privatization has occurred in transition economies or in 2 The papers presented at the World Bank/ Federal Reserve Banking Conference on Bank Privatization also add significantly to this body of literature. 11 economies that already have a market system in other industries and where banking is one of the few industries that is state-owned? And, most basic, how many banks have been privatized and what has been the volume of capital raised for the governments as a result of these privatizations? It is to these questions and issues that we now turn. 3. Motives for Commercial Bank Privatization Not all commercial bank privatizations are similarly motivated. At least four reasons for bank privatization can be identified in countries around the world. First, in formerly socialist economies, privatization has occurred on a widespread scale in many industries, as discussed in detail in Megginson and Netter (1998). In these situations, bank privatizations occur as part of the overall transitioning to a more market-based economic system. However, these countries also provide the biggest challenge to successful privatization because so much of the credit previously provided by the monobank systems was granted to SOEs, which tend to be of very poor credit quality. As such, banks in transition economies tend to be plagued with the greatest loan quality problems of all bank privatizations. Second, in some countries there may be a program underway to de-nationalize the limited number of sectors or firms that are state-owned. In such situations, privatization is less likely to offer as great a challenge, at least in the loan quality area. 12 Third, in some economies there may be ongoing efforts to deregulate the overall financial system. In this regard, bank privatizations are a necessary ingredient of the overall deregulation effort. Finally, the governments in some countries may have the primary objective of raising funds for the government itself. As such, banks may simply be one of the vehicles in the “revenue privatization” motive. In the evidence presented below, we attempt to classify the bank privatization into these categories by differentiating between what we call high information and low information economies. In any event, governments find it difficult to release control over commercial banks since credit and direct grants are important lubricants in the engine of political control in economies where SOEs are either dominant or exist on a more limited basis [see Boycko, Shleifer and Vishny (1996) and Shleifer and Vishny (1994)]. Even in market-oriented economies like the U.S., banks and credit allocation schemes are favored vehicles for setting special terms or enhancing credit availability to favored sectors or groups. Indeed, even in the wave of mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. in recent years, one of the “prices” for government approval of a merger or acquisition has been the commitment of large sums of grants and credit to “community development”. 4. Descriptive Information on Bank Privatization: Number of Banks and Transactions One of the biggest obstacles to investigations of bank privatizations is the lack of data easily available from public sources. And, even when data are available, they vary widely across countries in terms of what information is provided and the quality of the information provided. In what follows, we rely on data sources such as Privatization International, 13 Euromoney, the Wall Street Journal, and especially the Financial Times as information sources to identify the bank privatizations that have occurred and that also utilized pubic security offerings as the privatization vehicle.3 Once the banks are identified, data are obtained from sources such as Datastream and Moody’s International. In addition, we contacted all banks that have executed share issue privatizations and requested copies of the prospectus used in the offering of securities plus annual reports from both the pre and post-privatization periods. The total sample of all banking share issue privatizations (SIPs) in our sample is presented in Table 1. Panel A presents data from banks in “high information” economies; that is, economies in which economic and financial data are usually available on a regular basis. Most of these are western-type (OECD) economies. The major exception is Poland, which we included in this group because there were a number of share issue privatizations for which information was available. Panel B of Table 1 presents banks from countries that we characterize as transition and emerging economies. **** Insert Table 1 about here **** The combined sample in Table 1 includes a total of 65 bank privatizations from 25 countries. There are 44 privatizations in 12 countries that we define as high information economies and 21 privatizations in 13 countries identified as transition or emerging economies. France has the largest number of privatizations with 9, followed by Portugal with 7, Poland with 6, Italy with 5 and Norway with 4. There are a total of 102 transactions from these 65 3 We do not claim these listings to be a complete representation of all privatizations. Some occur that are not reported (low information economies). Also, where other methods of privatization were used such as vouchers, strategic investors (foreign or domestic) or private placement, these transactions are not considered here. 14 privatizations, where a transaction is defined as an event in which a security offering occurred in one of three forms: (1) an initial public offering (IPO) at the time of the privatization, (2) a subsequent seasoned equity security offering (SEO), or (3) a private placement. Of the 72 transactions from the 44 banks from the high information economies, there are 41 IPOs, 23 secondary offerings, 6 private placements, and one offering we cannot identify. Bank privatization security offerings tend to be of substantial size. As reported in the size column of Table 1, the IPO issue size ranges from approximately $10 million to nearly $5 billion in the high information economies. The mean IPO in these economies is $670 million while the median is $288 million. The mean value of the 23 SEO offerings is $584 million with a median of $364 million. Security offerings in the transition and emerging economies are somewhat smaller with a range for the 17 IPOs of $5 million to $500 million, a mean of $174 million and median of $142 million. The 11 secondary issues have a mean value of $84 million and a median value of $49 million. Clearly, the issue sizes are much larger in the high information economies, reflecting two fundamental differences; first, banks are larger in those economies and second, capital markets have greater depth and liquidity to handle such large transactions. Indeed, it is safe to say that a major impediment to share issue privatization in emerging economies is the lack of a large equity market that can both readily absorb the security offerings and provide the necessary liquidity to support active trading thereafter. 5. Analysis of Pre and Post-Privatization Financial and Operating performance in Privatized Banks Following the lines of research on privatization in the non-financial sector, one of the important aspects of privatization is to remove or reduce the influence of state ownership in the 15 operations of the firm. In the research from non-financial sectors, there are strong indications that the operating performance of the privatized firms improves significantly in the postprivatization period. As reported in D’Souza and Megginson (1999), the mean and median levels of profitability, sales and revenue generation, and operating efficiency increase significantly after privatization. If privatization is to be successful in banking, then one necessary, albeit not sufficient, condition is for an improvement in the financial and operating performance of the banks that have been privatized. Based on evidence from research on privatization in the non-financial sector, we test for differences in the pre and post-privatization performance of bank profitability, efficiency, revenue (sales) growth, and capital adequacy (leverage). Clearly, there are other implications and aspects of bank privatization that are equally if not more important, such as dealing with the bad loans in the bank system, the effects of privatization on credit allocation in the economy, deposit insurance systems and governance issues. However, if banks cannot improve their financial performance, based on some traditional financial measures, then the case for share issue privatization as a method for privatizing the banking system is somewhat, if not substantially, weakened. In Table 2, we report those banks for which we are able to examine operating and financial performance pre and post-privatization. To perform this analysis, we require information from the bank’s income and balance sheet statements. Ideally, we want a full 7 years of data, encompassing the three years before privatization through the three years afterwards. We contacted all of the banks in our sample and requested a prospectus of the original privatization transaction, plus income statement and balance sheet information of the bank subsequent to 16 privatization. We supplement the data received from the banks through financial statement information found on Datastream, and in Moody’s International. **** Insert Table 2 about here **** To be included in the sample for financial analysis, we require data on the banks over a period of not less than one year prior to the privatization through one year afterwards. Of the 65 banks in our original sample reported in Table 1, we identify 36 banks which have adequate financial statement information for both the pre- and post-privatization periods. As shown, 31 of the banks in Table 2 are located in 11 high information economies and 5 banks are from 4 emerging economies. France has the largest number of privatized banks in the analysis with seven, followed by Italy and Portugal with five each. For each firm in the sample, we collect information on total income, interest income, interest expense, non-interest expense, total assets, total common equity, total advances (loans) to customers, and total non-deposit debt. We then compute various profitability, efficiency, revenue, and capital ratios for the sample, pre and post-privatization. The results on our pre versus post-privatization operating and financial performance tests are reported in Table 3 for the 31 banks included in the high information country sample. We investigate the following measures of financial performance: • profitability – as measured by return on assets and return on common equity • margin measures – as measured by net interest margin and profit margin • sales or revenue generation – as measured by non-interest revenue and total income as a percent of assets • loan output – as measured by the ratio of loans or customer advances to assets 17 • operating efficiency – as measured by non-interest operating expense relative to assets • leverage – as measured by non-deposit debt-to-assets and capital-to-assets ratios. At the outset, it must be noted that these are accounting measures of financial performance and are hence subject to all the weaknesses of such data. These weaknesses tend to be exacerbated in this case, for several reasons. First, bank data are always opaque, and especially so in privatization cases when different currencies are involved in the analysis, financial reporting standards may vary, and different sources may be used to assemble the data. Second, there is no adequate way to control for risk in these standard measures. For example, improved profit performance could be achieved by taking on more risk. However, it is hard to imagine greater risk than lending to SOEs at low or negative returns, as often occurs during the banks’ pre-privatization stage. Sections A-G below investigate and test for the statistical significance of the changes in bank performance between the pre and post-privatization periods. A. Profitability In Table 3, we provide evidence on the profitability performance of the banks pre and post-privatization. The specific measures used are return-on-assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE). We expect that switching from state ownership to at least partial private ownership should produce higher ROA and ROE. We compute the mean and median ROA and ROE for the three years prior to the privatization and evaluate it relative to the mean and median of the three years following privatization. We then conduct two tests: a Wilcoxon test (Z-statistic)for the difference between the medians pre and post-privatization, and a binomial test (also a Z-statistic) for the significance of the fraction of sample firms that change as predicted. For the 32 banks in the high information economies, the median ROA for the pre-privatization period is 0.34 percent 18 compared to 0.56 percent for the post-privatization period. As indicated by the Wilcoxon test reported in Table 3, this is a significant improvement in profitability. The Z-statistic from the proportion test also indicates significant improvement. Unlike the ROA results, the improvement in median ROE from 7.06 percent to 10.85 percent is not significant, likely because of the corresponding increase in the capital-to-asset ratio. B. Margin Measures One of the most important margin measures in banking is the net interest margin (NIM) which is the difference between interest income and interest expense relative to total assets. A greater (positive) difference, meaning a higher NIM, indicates an improvement in lending performance from the bank’s perspective. Better performing banks tend to have higher NIMs. However, it takes substantial time to fundamentally alter a bank’s lending policies, loan mix and loan yields. As such, we do not expect dramatic improvement in NIM immediately after privatization. As reported in Table 3, the mean interest margin increases but not significantly, while the median interest margin decreases slightly although not significantly from 2.38 percent to 2.36 percent after privatization. This lack of significance is not unexpected because it typically takes substantial time to both develop appropriate market-oriented lending policies and to accumulate a properly-priced loan portfolio. To accomplish this objective in a very short time frame would require very sharp changes in lending behavior and policies, something that might not be possible without exceptionally large changes in ownership, governance and control. Intuitively, we suspect sharp improvements in NIM would be more easily facilitated by privatization via a strategic foreign investor route, particularly a foreign financial investor. 19 We also report the change in the profit margin, which admittedly is a less meaningful measure for banks than for non-financials. In any case, the median ratio of net income to total income improved significantly from 3.92 percent to 6.79 percent, indicating a substantial improvement in the ability of the firm to bring revenue to the “bottom line”. The proportion test, however, shows insignificant improvement for profit margin. These results are less positive for net interest margin. The mean increases substantially, but the median is essentially unchanged. A significant fraction of the firms (70%, Z=-2.19) actually experience a decrease in NIM. C. Revenue Generation Privatized firms can be expected ultimately to enhance revenue production as a means of improving financial performance. In a bank, this can be measured on a relative basis by the ratio of total income to assets and also by the magnitude of non-interest revenue relative to assets. Both measures are reported in Table 3. The mean ratio of non-interest revenue to total assets increased from 2.37 percent to 2.75 percent while the median also increased slightly. Total income to assets did not change significantly after privatization. Again, it takes time to establish programs that enhance revenue, but it is somewhat surprising that there is such limited evidence of revenue improvement. D. Loan Output It is unclear whether privatized banks would be expected to increase or decrease the importance of lending in the bank. One can easily argue that it would be rational to reduce lending in the post-privatization mode as a response to the previously extensive credit extension that was completely controlled by state policies and usually resulted in loans to SOEs. As such, we have no expectation regarding the direction of the change. As reported in Table 3, the loan 20 ratio does increase on average and for most of the banks, but the change is not statistically significant. E. Operating Efficiency The literature from non-financial privatizations indicates that privatized firms significantly improve their operating efficiency. We expect a similar finding for financial institutions. As shown in Table 3, the operating efficiency measure, non-interest expense to assets, declines modestly, indicating slight improvement in efficiency. The small reduction in operating costs, albeit not significant, likely accounts for part of the improved profitability performance shown above for return on assets (ROA). At this point, we cannot identify the source of the efficiency gain. It may come from a reduction in personnel, fewer occupancy expenses or simply overall reduction in costs. Since state-owned banks as well as SOEs in general tend to have large number of employees, the most logical source of efficiency gains would seem to be in reduction of personnel. Verbrugge and Yantac [1999] document that the number of employees in state-owned banks in Turkey is wellabove that for private sector banks. If, as seems likely, this is generally true in most countries, one would expect a transition to more private ownership to result in a decline in employment. F. Leverage Finally, we examine two capital structure measures, the ratio of non-deposit debt to total assets and the ratio of equity-to-assets. The latter is a variation of the well-known capital adequacy measure in the banking literature. In the transition to private ownership, we expect a reduction in leverage and an increase in the equity cushion since more of the risk of financial distress is shifted to private sector owners. Both measures provide support for this perspective as 21 the median leverage ratio declines significantly, from 0.324 to 0.289, while the median equity capital ratio increases significantly by approximately 100 basis points, from 0.0452 to 0.0559. G. Total Assets, Total Loans, Total Income and Net Income Pre and Post Privatization We also analyze the pre vs. post-privatization behavior of the absolute level of assets, loans, total income and net income for a small number (eleven) of banks for which we have a complete set of data for seven years. In results not reported here, we find that without exception the banks expand their asset holdings by amounts ranging from 16 percent to 200 percent by the end of the third year following privatization. Loans increase by similar magnitudes, ranging from a 19 percent increase to 170 percent in absolute terms. Total income increases by a median amount of over 60 percent and net income by a median amount of slightly more than 100 percent. An inspection of data from banks with less complete information revealed similar trends. These figures, of course, reflect several factors, including inflation as well as general bank expansion in the respective economies. At the same time, it is clear that the privatized banks do not reduce their activities as measured by assets, loans, and total revenues. While the sample size is too small to allow definitive conclusions to be drawn, this evidence of performance improvements after privatization is certainly indicative. H. Conclusions From Pre and Post Performance Tests In general, the results presented above provide limited support for our propositions regarding the effect of privatization on performance. However, there are several reasons why considerable caution must be exercised before concluding that share issue privatization in banking is the solution to solving the SOE problem in financial services. Some of the reasons are detailed below. 22 First, as mentioned earlier, the accounting measures we use in the tests are subject to all of the concerns over accounting measures in banking, such as opaqueness, inconsistency across countries, and inability to control for risk. Second, there are likely to be significant institutional differences across countries in financial reporting and other areas, suggesting that testing for significant differences between pre and post behavior using a sample of banks from different countries may be problematic. Third, simply comparing banks’ pre and post-privatization performance across countries may miss the fact that bank performance is likely to vary across countries. As such, a more appropriate test might be to examine whether privatized banks in, for example, Italy begin to look more like existing private sector Italian banks. This is an agenda item for future research. Finally, in the tests reported here we do not have information on one of the most important dimensions of banking--namely, asset quality, as measured by loan loss reserves and loan losses. Generally, data on these issues are not available from the data sources utilized. Again, this is an agenda item for future research for at least a sub-sample of banks. We also examine the performance measures shown in Table 3 for banks in each country where there were at least three banks from that country in the sample. This includes France, Germany, Italy, Norway and Portugal. Although sample sizes are too small for significance testing, the results (not reported here) are similar to those shown in Table 3. We also calculate the pre and post-privatization ratios for the five banks in the emerging economies reported in Table 2. Perhaps surprisingly, these banks experience more pronounced improvements in ROA, ROE, profit margin, non-interest revenue generation and in operating efficiency than do banks 23 privatized in developed economies. Again, due to the small sample, tests of significance are not possible. 6. Initial Returns to Investors in Bank Privatization Security Offerings It is a well-documented finding that there are positive abnormal returns to shareholders in initial public offerings. This result has also been established for IPOs in non-financial privatizations, as summarized in Megginson and Netter (1998), and predicted by Perotti (1995) and Bisais and Perotti (1997). Megginson, Nash, Netter, and Schwartz (1998) also report positive long-run abnormal returns to investors in privatization IPOs, a finding that stands in sharp contrast to the negative long-run return findings for non-privatization IPOs reported in Loughran and Ritter (1995). In Table 4, we report the initial returns for 18 bank privatization IPOs from high information economies for which we can obtain information on the offer price and the first day trading price. For these 18 unseasoned share issue privatizations, the average initial return is 30.5% while the median initial return to investors is 15.9%. Excluding three offerings of Polish banks where the initial returns are very high (mean of 90%), the mean (median) initial return falls to 18.6% (15%). These findings are generally in line with those from both non-privatization IPO results and non-financial privatizations. We also have limited information on secondary offerings reported in Table 4. For the six secondary offerings for which we do have price information, the mean initial return is 5.9% while the median initial return is 6.1%. Thus, based on this limited information, we conclude that the seasoned secondary offerings are underpriced much less than IPOs. 24 As shown in Section B of Table 4, which contains information for bank privatizations in transition and emerging economies, we are able to obtain price information on only 2 of the 15 IPOs and none of the 11 secondary offerings that occur in those countries. This is not surprising, and it further supports the logic of our classification of these countries as “low information economies”. The paucity of reliable price information clearly portrays the difficulties of studying the effects of share issue privatizations in banking, even in high information economies. Ideally, one would be able to compare the initial bank share price returns in each country to other IPO returns in that country, and also calculate the bank SIP returns on a market-adjusted basis. Limited information prevents us from doing so. We can however conclude that even this limited evidence lends support to the fundamental finding from other studies of initial security offerings, namely that bank privatization IPOs also tend to be substantially underpriced. The almost complete absence of price information of bank privatization in emerging economies is not surprising. Generally, these countries suffer from lack of well-developed capital markets, a lack of transparency in those markets that do exist, and limited disclosure of information on security offerings. This suggests, unfortunately, that SIPs in the banking industry may not be an ideal vehicle for reducing the state influence on banking in the absence of such characteristics. 7. Government Ownership Pre and Post-Privatization and Subscription Details Table 1 reports statistics on government ownership before and after each privatization transaction that occurred. These government ownership proportions are reported for 70 25 transactions in the high information economies and for 24 transactions in the emerging economies. We also report mean and median government ownership following IPOs and also for the secondary offerings, if there are multiple secondary offerings in the privatization process. We also present information in Table 1 on the number of shareholders created, subscription details in some of the cases, and the percentage of government ownership pre and post-privatization. As can be seen, bank privatizations often create an enormous number of new shareholders—over 3.8 million in the remarkable case of Compagnie Financiére de Paribas. Given their smaller size, relatively fewer shareholders are created by banking privatizations in developing economies, though the State Bank of India IPO created a respectable 1.4 million new stockholders. In those cases where we have information on subscription details, the issues in high information economies tend to be heavily oversubscribed, with a mean of 15 times and a median of 5 times. Not unexpectedly, this pattern of substantial over-subscription is not found in SIPs in the emerging market economies. For the nine cases for which we have subscription information in these markets, the mean over-subscription rate is 3.7 times (dominated by one outlier of 16 times) and the median is only 2 times. This again is consistent with the notion that lack of welldeveloped capital markets are an impediment banking SIPs in developing countries, because in the high information economies and in non-financial privatizations, the over-subscription rates are substantially higher. Because there are several very interesting and revealing patterns that emerge from a careful analysis of the data, we present below a discussion of these patterns, organized around a series of questions. 26 1. In How Many Instances is Government Ownership Eliminated Completely at the IPO Stage? Of the more than 60 bank privatizations that occur using public share offerings, we are able to identify seven cases where government ownership is reduced to zero percent at the IPO stage. As indicated by the listing in Table 4, five of these occur in France during the privatization wave of 1987 and only one occurs in an emerging economy. **** Insert Table 4 about here **** 2. In How Many Additional Instances is Government Ownership Eliminated Completely by One or More Secondary Offerings Following the Initial Transaction? We identified eight additional banks where the government percent ownership is reduced to zero by one or more subsequent offerings. These cases are identified in panel B of Table 4. As indicated, multiple secondary offerings are utilized in the cases of Argentaria in Spain (3), BCI in Italy (4) and SPA in Italy (2). Thus, of the 65 bank privatizations using the SIP approach, only 15 (23 percent) of the banks are completely privatized. In the remaining cases, the government retains partial ownership. 3. For the 41 IPOs in High Information Economies and the 17 IPOs in Emerging Economies, what ere the Mean and Median Government Ownership Proportions Following the IPO? As reported in the summary rows for Panels A and B in Table 1, the mean and median government ownership for the 41 IPOs are 47 percent and 52 percent, respectively. For the 17 IPOs in emerging economies, the mean government ownership is substantially higher at 58 percent while the median is higher still at 72 percent. The extent to which governments retain ownership after an IPO is portrayed in more detail in Table 5, where we report, by bank and by country, the proportion of government ownership retained at the IPO stage for each transaction 27 where that information could be identified. As indicated, except for the French privatizations, in most bank privatizations in most countries, governments retain majority (at least 50 percent) ownership at the initial security offering stage. The evidence reported in Table 5 suggests that less than 50 percent of the equity is sold in the majority (approximately 60 percent) of the IPO transactions. **** Insert Table 5 about here **** An interesting question can be raised regarding the various degrees to which government ownership is eliminated through an IPO; namely, whether initial returns are higher for those cases in which the government stake is reduced to zero at the IPO stage. One might expect a stronger initial price reaction in such cases relative to those in which government retains a substantial or majority share of ownership. Although we do not have an adequate number of initial returns to test for statistical significance, anecdotal evidence suggests this to be true. For the French banks where government ownership is eliminated in the IPO stage, the mean (median) initial return is 34.4 percent (21.4 percent). For those cases in other western economies in which government ownership is not eliminated at the IPO stage, the mean (median) initial return is 11.3 percent (13.3 percent). 4. Since Some IPOs are Followed by Subsequent Transactions (Secondary Offerings or Private Placements), To What Extent is Government Ownership Retained Upon Completion of the “Final Transaction”? We define a final transaction as the last security transaction for a specific bank privatization. This could be (1) the IPO, if it is not followed by a subsequent seasoned offering or private placement, (2) the final seasoned offering following an initial transaction, and possibly 28 one or more subsequent offerings, or (3) a private placement following an IPO or secondary offering. We identify 58 transactions meeting the conditions outlined above and report the means (median) in Table 6. For the 43 final transactions (Panel A), regardless of type (IPO, seasoned offer, or private placement), in high information economies the mean (median) government ownership retained is 32 percent (27 percent). For the 15 emerging economy cases, the mean (median) proportion retained by the government is a substantially higher 57 percent (72 percent). **** Insert Table 6 about here **** In 25 high information economy cases, the IPO is the final transaction, with a mean (median) post-issue government holding of 38 percent (37 percent). For the seven cases in emerging economies where the IPO is the final transaction, the mean (median) holding post-issue is substantially higher, at 74 percent (82 percent). In those cases where governments follow IPO transactions with one or more secondary offerings, the mean (median) government ownership percentage falls to 20 percent (5 percent) for the 13 final secondary offerings in high information economies. However, in the emerging economies, government ownership remains at 49 percent (57 percent) for the mean (median) of the seven final secondary transactions. Relatively few final transactions are of the private placement variety. In panel D of Table 7, we report the results for five transactions in the high information economies. The mean (median) government ownership percentage for these cases is 31 percent (33 percent). Based on our analysis of the proportion of ownership retained by government in the privatization process, the following observations can be made. First, it is highly unlikely that government ownership will be eliminated at the IPO stage, which confirms the prediction made 29 by Perotti (1995). This occurs in relatively few cases, and mostly in only one country. In more than one-half of the IPOs, the government retains majority ownership at this stage. Second, subsequent offerings substantially reduce government ownership, especially in high information economies, to an average of 20 percent (median of 5 percent) for the 13 final secondary transactions. Third, where the IPO is the final transaction and is not followed by a subsequent secondary or private placement, the government ownership remains at more than one-third in the high information economies. Fourth, in all cases--regardless of the type of final transaction-government ownership of banks remains much higher for the emerging economy transactions. These findings on the degree to which states retain ownership of banks, especially at the IPO stage and even more so in emerging economies, suggest somewhat pessimistic implications for the success of bank privatization using the public share issue approach. One conclusion is that governments are simply using bank SIPs as a revenue generating mechanism while retaining significant if not dominant ownership in the banks after privatization. At the same time, as outlined in more detail in the conclusions section below, it may then be more difficult to institute appropriate market-oriented governance and decision-making systems in banks when the government maintains such a large ownership stake, and correspondingly, a strong potential influence over the bank’s operations. 8. Summary, Conclusions, and Suggestions for Future Research In this study, we examine more than 100 transactions involving 65 bank privatizations that use the share issue offering approach to reduce government ownership in the banking sector. Based on this investigation, we arrive at the following major conclusions: 30 • Privatization is a process, not an event. In very few cases is state ownership eliminated with a single share offering. In many cases, there are one or more seasoned offerings that follow an IPO, and these transactions often occur a year or more after the initial offer. • The numerous cases in which privatization occurs in stages over time suggests that revenue maximization is one of the forces driving bank privatization, along with the government’s wish to retain its influence over the banking system. If the objective was to eliminate state ownership, one transaction could accomplish that goal. • The high initial returns found for IPOs of bank privatizations are consistent with those found in other non-financial privatization studies and for IPOs in general. These findings are limited to the high information economies because pricing information for SIPs in the transition and emerging economies is very limited. There is tentative evidence that initial returns are higher for those IPOs where government ownership is eliminated completely at the IPO stage. • Seasoned offerings appear to be significantly less underpriced than IPOs, although there are very few price observations on which to base this conclusion. • In the high information economies, there is substantial oversubscription of the shares in the SIPs, far above that for the offerings in emerging economies. This is consistent with the fact that capital market conditions are significantly less robust in the emerging economies. • In most cases, the state retains a significant, if not majority, ownership share in the bank even after the IPO. Subsequent secondary offerings do have significant effects on reducing the state ownership stake. The government ownership level after privatization 31 tends to be much higher in the transition and emerging economies than in the high information economies. This state retention of ownership has negative implications for the likelihood of establishing market-oriented banking in these markets. • We identify only seven cases in which government ownership is totally eliminated at the IPO stage, and eight additional banks where state ownership is eliminated with one or more subsequent, seasoned offering. • Despite the continued presence of significant state ownership, we do document some improvement in bank operating and financial performance following privatization. On average, profitability improves, operating efficiency improves, leverage declines slightly, and there is some limited evidence of non-interest revenue enhancement. Increases in the level of assets, loans, total income and net income indicate substantial size expansion following privatizations. However, changes in the financial performance of privatized banks appear to be much less pronounced than in the case of non-financial privatizations. At this stage of research on the effects of share issue privatization on banking systems and bank performance, there are few substantive conclusions that can be reached regarding, for example, which bank privatizations have been the most successful. One difficulty is that no accepted criteria exists for measuring success in bank divestitures. If the objective is to eliminate government ownership and influence on the bank, then the most successful privatizations are the fifteen cases where that was accomplished via IPOs and secondary offerings. If the objective is the improvement in bank profitability, then the banks with the greatest increase in ROA or net income are the most successful examples. One thing has become clear, privatization takes time 32 to unfold, especially if government ownership is reduced in stages—which is what typically happens. As such, an analysis of pre and post-financial performance data around the time of the IPO is likely to yield an incomplete picture of the effects of privatization. Clearly, privatization is a process that unfolds over a time period that is often quite long. There are numerous empirical issues and questions that remain to be addressed in further work on this subject. This includes more specific empirical work on individual countries and on different methods of privatization. For example, the strategic domestic conglomerate investor approach reported in Verbrugge and Yantac (1999) seems to offer more promise for improving bank performance after privatization than does the SIP approach studied here. Also, there are significant data deficiencies for some of the most important aspects of banking, namely asset quality pre and post-privatization, and lending output and behavior following privatization. The issue of long-run returns to investors in bank SIPs is an also important one, albeit one that faces serious methodological difficulties even under the best data and market information conditions [Barber and Lyon (1997), Megginson, Nash, Netter, and Schwartz (1998)]. Finally, the financial performance changes documented in this paper must be compared to those same measures in other banks in the countries studied in order to separate the effects of privatization from general banking trends. We do believe that our study offers some suggestions and implications for the broader, and fundamentally more important, issues surrounding bank privatization as a vehicle for removing the influence of national governments from the banking sectors around the world. Based on this study, and within the context of other privatization studies conducted on non- 33 financial firms, we conclude that the SIP approach may not work as effectively in the banking sector as in the non-financial sector. This is true for the following reasons: • Since the government retains substantial partial ownership in the banks even after privatization, it will retain significant influence over bank decisions in the absence of a dominant private investor. • Other private ownership may be so diffused that the new private sector owners cannot exert any significant influence over bank governance and bank operating decisions. • IPOs tend to favor entrenched managers, who themselves may become significant owners. This makes it difficult to reduce the influence of insider control. It also perpetuates control by those individuals who were probably managers in the bank prior to privatization and who may have been instrumental in creating the asset quality problems that exist in SEOs. • Successful IPOs require a reasonably well-established equity market to handle the IPO transaction and the creation of subsequent trading liquidity. • Bank IPOs tend to be relatively large and difficult to execute, even for countries with relatively well-developed capital markets. In emerging economies with less developed capital markets, this is an even more serious problem. Finally, based on this research and our understanding of the bank and non-bank privatization literature available at this time, we conclude that there are a series of very important issues and questions that must be addressed in order for bank privatization to be successful. Some, if not most, of these issues do not come into the equation in non-financial privatizations. 34 For bank privatization to be successful in any country, a set of conditions must be achieved that ensure the greatest likelihood for the establishment of a viable banking system. We suggest that the following conditions represent the minimum conditions for achieving this goal.4 • A deposit insurance system must be established that does not create serious moral hazard problems (for example, 100% deposit insurance is not a wise system). • A bank regulatory system must be developed that is sufficiently independent from political influence. This is essential for effective bank examination, supervision and monitoring. • Governance systems must be instituted where truly independent shareholders control the bank, have incentives to modernize its systems, and establish policies that orient bank decision-making toward creating value for shareholders. • Financial reporting systems must be developed that allow for transparency, especially with regard to asset quality and true profitability. • Effective methods of dealing with bad loans prior to and/or during the privatization process are essential. This problem is especially severe in situations where uncollectable loans are outstanding to state-owned enterprises (SOEs). 4 A number of these conditions are suggested for privatization in general in Smalhout (1999). He classifies these points as “lessons for privatizers.” 35 • It is essential to eliminate the culture and propensity of banks to lend to these SOEs after privatization is critical, especially in economies with large remaining concentrations of SOEs, and in transition economies • There must be assurances that if the government does retain partial ownership, it acts only as a passive investor. This is essential to prevent the continuation of past creditallocation decisions made by the government, usually on some political or centralplanning basis. • The influence of insider control over bank policies and decisions must be reduced, since these individuals were likely responsible for past decisions that may have led to the problems. This may require a complete change in management. • Finally, and perhaps most controversially, governments may well need to emphasize sales to foreign owners—particularly foreign commercial banks—in order to attract badlyneeded capital, expertise, technology, and financial legitimacy. Bank privatization is one of the biggest challenges facing many governments around the world. The reluctance of states to remove themselves from the banking and credit systems is well-documented in this study and elsewhere. However, if the objective of a country is to establish a more efficient and market-oriented economy, reducing the influence of the state on credit allocation decisions is critically important. 36 References Abarbanell, Jeffrey S., and Bonin, John P., “Bank Privatization in Poland: The Case of Bank Slaski,” Journal of Comparative Economics 25, 1:31-61, August 1997. 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TABLE 1: Panel A Details of Bank Privatization Share Offerings, Initial Returns, Subscription Details and Government Ownership Bank Privatization in High Information Economies % Reserved foreign investors 49.00 29.00 % Reserved for employee 2.20 1 10/93 11/93 20.30 51.00 Minimal 5 22.75 19.00 IPO 4/87 100.00 10 France IPO 4/87 100.00 10 Company Name Country 1 2 Bankwest Commonwealth Bank 3 4 Commonwealth Bank Girobank 5 Banque du Batimen et Travaux Publiques (BTP) Banque Industrielle et Mobiliére Privée (BIMP) 6 Date of issue Australia Australia Type of share offer IPO IPO 1/96 8/91 Australia Denmark SEO IPO France % of capital offered 7 8 9 10 Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) Compagnie Financiére de Paribas Compagnie Financiére de Suez Credit Commercial de France France IPO 10/93 73.00 11 France France France IPO IPO IPO 1/87 10/87 5/87 100.00 80.00 48.99 10 10 10 9.00 15.00 11 Credit Local de France France IPO 12/91 27.50 None 20 12 Credit Local de France France SEO 6/93 30.50 None 10.50 13 Société Générale France 14 Société Générale France 15 Société Générale d'Alsacienne de Banque (Sogenal) Deutsche Pfandbrief-und Hypothekenbank (DePfa-Bank) Deutsche Pfandbrief-und Hypothekenbank (DePfa-Bank) Deutsche Siedlungs und Landesrenten-bank (DSL) Deutsche Verkehrskredit bank (DVKB) 16 17 18 19 6/87 20.00 France IPO Priv. place IPO 6/87 59.10 10 3/87 100.00 10 Germany IPO 3/91 46.50 None Germany Priv. place 3/91 40.00 None Germany IPO 10/89 48.00 Germany IPO 3/88 24.90 31.20 10.60 Israel IPO 6/93 20.00 1.60 None 21 Bank Hapoalim Israel SEO 11/93 6.90 1.40 None 22 Bank Hapoalim Israel 10/97 34.60 23 Bank Leumi Israel Priv. place IPO 8/93 27.00 NO NO 7.02 13.33 100 0 NO 35.38 524,000 100 0 NO 21.43 2,800,000 100 27 NO 15.00 3,805,000 1,400,000 1,652,000 100 100 48.99 0 18.52 20(1) 0 NO NO NO 100 72.5 NO 72.5 42 NO (2) 23.9 NO 23.9 3.9 NO 100 0 NO 100 53.5 NO 53.5 13.5 NO 100 52 NO 100 75.1 NO 100 80 NO 80 73.1 NO 70.59 100 65X 1,030,000 29X Public: 5X Instit: 2X 40X 20 10.7X Dom: .36X Intl: 4.0X Dom: 17X Intl: 7.0X 5.4X Heavily over-subsc .53X only half sold 37.60 1.57 50.25 49 287,500 2.5X 3.5X Oversubscribed Heavily over-subsc Oversubscribed Oversubscribed Oversubscribed Bank Hapoalim Initial return % % Govt owned after 51 71 46X 20 Primary offer of new shares? NO YES % Govt owned before 100 100 Level of share demand Over 200X # of shareholders created 67,387 187,981 2,298,000 850,000 83 73.1 35.5 NO 100 77.4 NO 25.85 5.76 16.82 6.14 80.00 Company Name Country % of capital offered Date of issue 3/96 1981 1984 3/86 3/87 15.90 50.00 25.00 33.00 16.70 % Reserved for employee 18.37 % Reserved foreign investors 24 25 26 27 28 Israel Discount Bank Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI) Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI) Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI) Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI) Israel Italy Italy Italy Italy Type of share offer SEO IPO SEO SEO SEO 29 Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI) Italy SEO 3/94 54.80 7 31.60 30 Credito Italiano Italy SEO 11/91 6.30 78.00 31 Credito Italiano Italy SEO 12/93 58.00 32 Istituto Bancario San Paolo di Torino Italy IPO 3/92 20.30 None None in offer None in offer Level of share demand 37.00 17.60 39.00 Dom: 6.5X Instit:15X 8X Public offer: 8X 1.5X % Govt owned after 79.01 85.14 85.11 61.2 60.1 Primary offer of new shares? NO YES YES YES YES 19,700 32,000 37,000 40,000 36,000 54.8 0 YES 65 58 NO 58 0 NO 10.99 100 79.7 YES 0.33 63(5) 31 56.9(6) 43.6 43.6 25 YES 49(7) 19 NO 100(8) 74 NO 64,843 33 Istituto Mobiliare Italian Spa Italy IPO 1/94 32.00 Oversubscribed 34 Mediobanca Italy 12/88 13.30 N/A 35 36 Mediobanca NMB-Postbank Groep (renamed ING Bank) Italy Netherlands Priv. Place IPO 10/89 18.60 IPO 12/89 30.00 8.60 40.00 2.5X 37 Christiania Bank Norway IPO 12/93 26.00 None 50.00 Oversubscribed 12/93 5.11 74 68.89 NO 16.50 19.80 95.90 None 100.0 (9) 0.4 57.00 71 52.15 4.1 YES NO NO 40.60 None 38 39 40 41 42 Christiania Bank Norway Den norske Bank (DnB) Den norske Bank (DnB) Fokus Bank Union Bank of Norway (UBN) (Sparebanken NOR) Bank Gdanski Bank Przemyslowo-Handlowy (BPH) Bank Rozwoju Eksportu (Export Development Bank) Norway Norway Norway 46 43 44 Priv. place IPO SEO IPO 5/94 6/96 10/95 Norway IPO 12/95 62.70 2.60 39.00 Poland IPO 1/95 50.10 2.2 30.80 Poland IPO 7/92 47.50 10 Bank Slaski Poland 10/93 40.90 7.50 47 Bank Slaski Poland IPO Priv. place Open to all None 2/94 25.90 48 Polish Development Bank (Polski Bank Rozwoju PBR) Wielkopoiski Bank Kredytowy Spolka Akcyjna (WBK) Wielkopoiski Bank Kredytowy Spolka Akcyjna (WBK) Poland IPO 3/95 16.60 None Poland IPO 4/93 55.72 20 Poland SEO 6/94 25.60 49 50 9,900 13,465 19,969 13,824 87.5 71.9(10) 100 5.19 NO NO 8.00 13.79 NO Poland 45 Instit: 12X Initial return % % Govt owned before 94.9(3) 89.9(4) 85.1(4) 70.7(4) 61.2(4) # of shareholders created None 21,700 100 37.3 NO 100 49.9 NO 100 52.5 NO 30.97 100 59.1 NO 35.00 59.1 33.2 NO 997 100 83.4 YES 1,000 100(11) 44.28 YES 30(12) 22.3 YES 2X 11.4X 6.5% Subsribed Large invest:13X 823,311 204.4 Company Name 51 63 64 65 Wielkopoiski Bank Kredytowy Spolka Akcyjna (WBK) Banco de Fomento e Exterior Banco Espirito Santo e Comercial de Lisboa (Besci) Banco Espirito Santo e Comercial de Lisboa (Besci Banco Internacional do Funchal (Banif) Banco Internacional do Funchal (Banif) Banco Pinto & Sotto Mayor Banco Pinto & Sotto Mayor Banco Portugues do Atlantico (BPA) Banco Portugues do Atlantico (BPA) Banco Portugues do Atlantico (BPA) Banco Portugues do Atlantico (BPA) Banco Totta e Acores Banco Totta e Acores Credito Predial Portugues 66 67 68 69 70 71 Argentaria Argentaria Argentaria Argentaria Nordbanken Stadshypotek AB 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 Country Type of share offer Date of issue % of capital offered % Reserved for employee Poland SEO 1/96 17.20 Portugal IPO 1/95 19.50 None Portugal IPO 7/91 40.00 6.5 Portugal SEO 2/92 Portugal IPO Portugal % Reserved foreign investors Level of share demand # of shareholders created % Govt owned before % Govt owned after Primary offer of new shares? Initial return % 22.3 5.1 NO 100 80.5 NO 100 60 NO 60.00 60 0 NO 3/92 68.00 100 32 NO 11/92 32.00 32 0 NO Portugal Portugal SEO IPO SEO 11/94 4/95 80.00 20.00 100 20 20 0 NO NO Portugal IPO 10/90 33.00 1.2X 100 67 NO Portugal SEO 5/92 25.80 1.8X 67 41.2 YES 1.23 Portugal SEO 7/93 17.50 1.21X 41.2 23.7 NO 7.64 Portugal SEO 6/94 7.50 23.7 16.2 NO Portugal Portugal Portugal IPO SEO IPO 7/89 7/90 12/92 49.00 31.00 100.00 25 Spain Spain Spain Spain Sweden Sweden IPO SEO SEO SEO IPO IPO 5/93 11/93 3/96 1998 10/95 10/94 24.90 24.20 24.80 26.70 34.50 34.40 8.80 None 2.1X 23,000 2.7X .5X 2 33,177 5.00 8.6 empl & others 25.00 10.00 3X 41,252 100 51 100 51 20 0 NO NO NO 8.80 45.80 Retail: 3.7 Instit: 8.6 5X 370,000 100 75.1 NO 13.29 75.1 51.5 26.7 100 100 50.9 26.7 0 65.5 65.6 NO NO NO NO YES 3.31 3.5 About 1.5 None 528,723 50.00 None 6X Intl: 4X 122,000 525,098 4.67 IPO Average (median) 41 49.51 (47.50) 97 (100) 47 (52) 30.48 (15.9) SEO Average (median) 23 26.04 (24.50) 63 (69) 22 (5) 5.90 (6.10) Full Sample Average (median), including private placements 71 39.57 (32.00) 79.42 (100) 41.02 (44.28) 24.33 (13.3) Transaction Notes: 1 The government is no longer a major shareholder of the bank. 2 17% of share capital was privately held by individual shareholders prior to the privatization. 3 5.09% of share capital was owned by IDB Holding Company prior to the privatization. Ownership by IDB Holding Company was increased to 13.17% through the privatization. 4 11% of share capital privately held by individual shareholders prior to the privatization. Though a large number of shares were issued by BCI, the government purchased much of the new shares issued, resulting in only a small reduction in percentage owned. 5 37% of share capital was held by 7 shareholders. Prior to the privatization there was no public market for the sale of the shares. 6 The bank was 56.9% owned by 3 controlling banks which banks were controlled by the Italian government. The balance of shares were owned by individuals. Banks continue to hold 25% of Mediobanca. 7 The state owned just under 49% of the bank due to the conversion of a guarantee given by the state into shares of the bank. Originally, the state owned 86% of the bank, but share ownership was reduced through private sales of shares by the state. 8 Due to Norwegian banking crises in early 1990, the government acquired all of the outstanding share capital of the bank. 9 Due to Norwegian banking crises in early 1990, he government acquired 87.5% of the outstanding share capital of the bank. 10 Prior to the secondary offer, the state acquired additional shares in th bank. 11 3.556MM shares (1.836M new shares) were isued in 1993 to EBRD (28.5%) and to the general public (27.2%). Total shares owned by the State Treasury after the privatization was 2.844MM (44.3%) 12 Prior to the secondary offer, the State Treasury sold additional shares in the open market resulting in a reduction in ownership by the state to 30%. TABLE 1: Panel B Details of Bank Privatization Share Offerings, Initial Returns, Subscription Details and Government Ownership Bank Privatization in Emerging Economies Company Name Country % Reserved foreign investors Level of share demand # of shareholders created % Govt owned before 99.2 % Govt owned after 0 Primary offer of new shares? NO 114,896 51.6 40.7(2) YES 107,959 56.4(3) 53.23 NO 86,736 59.9(3) 56.72 NO IPO 11/94 21.00 SEO 6/95 3.21 SEO 5/96 3.21 Egypt IPO 11/93 26.25 Hungary SEO 10/97 30.00 5 India India Jamaica IPO SEO IPO Priv. place 2/94 10/96 12/86 29.90 27.80 51.00 2.53 12.80 2.16X 12/92 39.00 None N/A IPO SEO SEO IPO SEO 7/88 10/90 9/96 11/94 10/96 29.41 20.00 10.00 10.59 20.00 20.00 15 10 None IPO 8/94 10.00 None Morocco IPO 1/95 35.00 3% of capital 50(5) 15 NO Morocco SEO 4/96 15.00 None 15 0 NO 18.00% None 100 82 NO 77.8 57 100 100 100 67 47.4 95 95 99 NO NO NO NO NO Banco de Colombia Zagrabacka banka d.a. 3 Komercni banka a.s. 4 Komercni banka a.s. 5 Komercni banka a.s. 6 Commercial International Bank 7 8 9 10 National Savings and Commercial Bank (OTP) State Bank of India State Bank of India National Commercial Bank 11 National Commercial Bank Jamaica 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Barclays Bank of Kenya Kenya Commercial Bank Kenya Commercial Bank Kenya Commercial Bank National Bank of Kenya National Bank of Kenya Citizens National Bank (Kookmin Bank) Banque Marocaine du Commerce Exterieur (BMCE) Banque Marocaine du Commerce Exterieur (BMCE) Kenya Kenya Kenya Kenya Kenya Kenya Korea (South) 20 % Reserved for employee 17 Date of issue 1 2 19 % of capital offered Type of share offer IPO IPO Colombia Croatia Czech Republic Czech Republic Czech Republic 99.20 Initial return % 6/96 21 Credit Eqdom Morocco SEO 6/95 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Sofac Credit Societe Nationale d'Investissment Philippine National Bank (PNB) Philippine National Bank (PNB) Chang Hwa Commercial Bank First Commercial Bank Hua Nan Commercial Bank Morocco Morocco Philippin Philippin Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan IPO IPO SEO SEO IPO IPO IPO 4/94 10/94 5/89 12/95 10.80 10.00 4.67 4.68 0.47 100% GDR 100% GDR None 30% before 10 21.90 1.5X 10,900 100 73.75 NO None None 1.9X 1,400,000 1,400,000 30,754 98.2 68.3 100 68.3 40.5 49 YES YES NO 39(4) 0 NO None None None None None 80 70.59 60 80 60 16X Open to all None 27.80 None None None 100 80 70.59 100 80 1.48X 1.8X 3X 2.5X +3X NO NO YES YES NO NO NO 20,000 1.69 50.48 29 30 Company Name Country Type of share offer Date of issue International Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Taiwan IPO 12/71 Krung Thai Bank Thailand IPO 7/89 % of capital offered 17.70 28.60% % Reserved for employee % Reserved foreign investors Level of share demand None Undersubscr # of shareholders created % Govt owned before % Govt owned after 100 82 NO 100 71 NO Primary offer of new shares? Initial return % IPO Average (median) 17 26.32 (20.50) 96 (100) 58 (72) 26.09 (26.1) SEO Average (median) 11 14.42 (20.50) 68 (78) 43 (52) 0 (0) Full Sample Average (median), including private placements 30 22.06 (20.00) 84.88 (99.60) 58.50 (67.00) 26.09 (26.1) Transaction Notes: 1 The bank sold 7.992 billion shares at an offer price of US $.03/share. 2 In 1992, 48.4% of the share capital of the bank was issued to the public through a coupon privatization program. Thus the ogvernment owned only 51.6% of the bank of privatization. Rights issue of 4.0MM new shares reduced the government ownership to 40.7%. 3 Prior to this secondary issue, the government acquired additional shares in the market. 4 Prior to this secondary issue, the government sold additional shares in the market. 5 Prior to the bank privatization, the State and state-owned entities owned 50.01% of the share capital of the bank. The remaining shares were owned by Moroccan financial institutions, foreign commercial banks, and the public. TABLE 2: Panel A Banks With Adequate Information for Analysis of Pre- and Post-Privatization Operating Performance High Information Economies Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Bank of Western Australia Commonwealth Bank Banque Industrielle et Mobiliere Privee Banque Nationale de Paris Compagnie Financiere de Paribas Compagnie Financiere de Suez Credit Commercial de France Societe Generale Societe Generale d'Alsacienne de Banque (Sogenal) Deutsche Pfandbrief-Und Hypothekenbank (Depfa-Bank) Deutsche Siedlungs und Landesrentenbank (DSL) Deutsche Verkehrs Kredit Bank (DVKB) Bank Hapoalim Bank Leumi Banca Commerciale Italiana Spa Istituto Bancario San Paolo Torina SpA Istituto Mobiliare Italian SpA Mediobanca NMB Postbank Groep NV Christiania Bank Den norske Bank (DnB) Fokus Bank Bank Slaski Wielkopolski Bank Kredytowy Spolka Akcyjna Banco Espirito Santo e Comercial de Lisboa (Bescl) Banco International do Funchal (Banif) Banco Pinto & Sotto Mayo Banco Portugues do Atlantico (BPA) Banco Totta Acores (BTA) Argentaria Norbanken AB Date of Issue 1/22/96 8/1/91 4/24/87 10/20/93 1/31/87 10/5/87 5/7/87 6/27/87 3/21/87 3/7/91 10/1/89 3/1/88 6/1/93 8/1/93 1981 3/31/92 1/1/94 10/28/89 12/6/89 12/16/93 5/1/94 10/8/95 10/15/93 4/23/93 7/1/91 3/25/92 11/1/94 12/11/90 7/1/89 5/11/93 10/20/95 Type of Sale IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO Country Australia Australia France France France France France France France Germany Germany Germany Israel Israel Italy Italy Italy Italy Netherlands Norway Norway Norway Poland Poland Portugal Portugal Portugal Portugal Portugal Spain Sweden AVERAGE Issue Size ($US Millions) 325 1,017 16 4,920 989 3,340 271 1,451 250 1,340 241 10 300 428 1,070 627 259 215 291 141 9 450 255 382 213 2,065 893 806 TABLE 2: Panel B Banks With Adequate Information for Analysis of Pre- and Post-Privatization Operating Performance Transition and Emerging Economies Name 1 2 3 4 5 Komercini Banka State Bank of India NCB Group Limited Kenya Commercial Bank National Bank of Kenya Date of Issue 11/1/94 2/3/94 12/3/86 7/19/88 11/2/94 Type of Sale IPO IPO IPO IPO IPO Country Czech Republic India Jamaica Kenya Kenya AVERAGE Issue Size ($US Millions) 452 17 8 10 122 TABLE 3 Analysis of Financial and Operating Performance of Pre-and Post-Privatized Banks A. High Information Economies VARIABLES STUDIED N MEAN VALUE (MEDIAN) BEFORE PRIVATIZATION MEAN VALUE (MEDIAN) AFTER PRIVATIZATION MEAN DIFFERENCE (MEDIAN) PRE -VS- POST PRIVATIZATION Z-STATISTIC Z-STATISTIC FOR DIFFERENCE IN MEDIANS (AFTER-BEFORE) NUMBER OF FOR FIRMS THAT SIGNIFICANCE OF PROPORTION CHANGE CHANGED AS PREDICTED Return of Assets net income/total assets 31 .0055 (.0034) .0082 (.0056) .0028 (.0010) 2.6063*** 22 2.3349*** Return on Equity net income/total common equity 31 -.0335 (.0706) .1371 (.1085) .1706 (.0047) .9210 19 1.2572 Profit Margin net income/total income 31 .0460 (.0392) .0732 (.0679) .0272 (.0063) 1.9009** 19 1.2572 Net Interest Margin (Interest income - interest expense) / total assets 30 .0149 (.0238) .0243 (.0236) .0094 (-.0024) -1.6969 9 -2.1909 Non-interest Revenue Production non-interest income/total assets 29 .0237 (.0162) .0275 (.0167) .0037 (.0013) 1.4379* 19 1.6713** Income to Assets total income/total assets 30 .1111 (.1068) .1090 (.1005) -.0021 (-.0009) -.4217 15 .0000 Loan Output customer advances/total assets 31 .5095 (.4867) .5298 (.5104) .0203 (.0110) -.1372 17 .5388 Operating Efficiency non-interest expense/total assets 27 .0280 (.0252) .0273 (.0221) -.0007 (.0000) .0480 14 .1925 Leverage non-deposit debt/total assets 31 .3243 (.3072) .2892 (.2392) -.0351 (-.0067) -1.8225** 20 1.6164* Capital Ratio equity/assets 31 .0452 (.0390) .0559 (.0495) .0107 (.0076) 3.1159*** 24 3.0533*** ***, **, * indicates significance at the 1%, 5%, 10% level. Wilcoxon Text Evaluated: Z= W O n (n + 1) (2n + 1) / 6 where W is the number derived from the sign rank test. The procedure tests whether the median difference in variable values between the pre- and post-privatization samples is zero. Z-Statistic for Significance of Proportion Change: H o : p = p0 = 0.5 H 1 : p > p0 Z= y / n po p0 (1 p0 ) / n where y is the number if firms that changed as predicted. TABLE 4 Banks Using Share Issue Privatizations in Which Government Ownership Was Totally Eliminated A. Government Ownership Eliminated at IPO Stage GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP PRE-IPO POST-IPO INITIAL RETURN (%) $16 100% 0% 35.4 4/87 16 100 0 21.4 France 1/87 989 100 0 18.5 Credit Commercial de France, SA France 5/87 271 49 0 16.8 Societe Generale d’Alsacienne de Banque (Sogenal) France 3/87 250 100 0 80.0 Credito Predial Portugues Portugal 12/92 100 0 N.A. Banco de Colombia Colombia 100 0 N.A. COUNTRY ISSUE DATE Banque du Batiment et Travaux Publiques (BTP) France 4/87 Banque Industrielle et Mobiliere Privee (BIMP) France Compagnie Financiere de Paribas BANK NAME SIZE ($US mn) 500 B. Government Ownership Eliminated Following One or More Secondary Offerings COUNTRY IPO DATE BANK NAME Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI) Italy Credit Italiano (SPA) Italy SECONDARY OFFERINGS TO ELIMINATE GOVERNMENT SHARE IPO ISSUE SIZE ($US mn) 1981 DATE OF FINAL OFFERING GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP POST-IPO INITIAL RETURN IPO 85% N.A. 4 3/94 65 N.A. 2 12/93 NUMBER Banco Espirito Santoe Commerciale de Lisboa (BESCI) Portugal 7/91 450 60 N.A. 1 2/92 Banco Internacional do Funchal SA (BANIF) Portugal 3/92 70 32 N.A. 1 11/92 Banco Pinto & Sotto Mayor Portugal 11/94 20 N.A. 1 4/95 Spain 3/93 850 75 13.3 3 1998 National Commercial Bank Jamaica 12/86 17 49 N.A. 1 12/92 Banque Morocaine du Commerce Exterior (BMCE) Morocco 1/95 169 15 N.A. 1 4/96 Argentaria Source: Table 4. TABLE 5 Evidence on Government Ownership of Banks Following IPO in Share Issue Privatizations, By Country PERCENT GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP POST-IPO BANK PRIVATIZATION IPO NUMBER OF BANK PRIVATIZATION IPOS #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 Australia 2 51 71 - - - - - - - Denmark 1 49 - - - - - - - - France 9 0 0 27 0 20 0 73 52 0 Germany 3 54 52 75 - - - - - - Israel 2 77 77 - - - - - - - Italy 5 85 65 80 31 N.A. - - - - Norway 4 69 72 41 60 - - - - - Poland 6 37 50 52 36 83 44 - - - Portugal 7 81 60 32 20 67 51 0 - - Spain 1 75 - - - - - - - - Sweden 2 66 34 - - - - - - - Colombia 1 0 - - - - - - - - Croatia 1 N.A. - - - - - - - - Czech Republic 1 41 - - - - - - - - Egypt 1 74 - - - - - - - - India 1 68 - - - - - - - - Jamaica 1 49 - - - - - - - - Kenya 3 N.A. 80 80 - - - - - - South Korea 1 N.A. - - - - - - - - Morocco 1 15 - - - - - - - - COUNTRY Source: Table 1. TABLE 6 Mean and Median Government Ownership Following Final Privatization Transaction1 A. All Final Transactions2 High Information Economies (43) Emerging Economies (15) Mean Median Mean Median 32% 27% 57% 57% B. IPO as the Final Transaction High Information Economies (25) Emerging Economies (7) Mean Median Mean Median 38% 37% 74% 82% C. Secondary Offering as the Final Transaction High Information Economies (13) Emerging Economies (7) Mean Median Mean Median 20% 5% 49% 57% D. Private Placement as the Final Transaction3 High Information Economies (5) Mean Median 31% 33% Notes: 1. Final transaction defined as the last security offering identified in a bank privatization. It may be the IPO, the last secondary offering following an IPO or a previous secondary offering, or a private placement. 2. Number of transactions indicated in parentheses. 3. There was one private placement as the final transaction in the emerging economies group. Source: Calculated from information in Table 1.
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