Resumo

Under the Agency theoretical framework, information asymmetry is crucial in stakeholders’ conflicts. This problem may be present in the process of firm valuation. The study assesses the effect of ownership concentration, firm size, the costs of preparing the valuation report and stock liquidity estimating a set of econometric models. The results indicate that ownership concentration is directly related to the added value of financial experts’ valuations, indicating a possible problem of information asymmetry that benefits controlling shareholders who may be interested in higher firm valuation.

This work aims to analyze the determinants of the added value of firm financial experts’ valuations, i.e., the difference between disclosed firm value in the valuation report and firm market value.

The specific literature records that conflicts of interest between the firm’s main stakeholders, articulated under the Agency Theory framework (JENSEN; MECKLING, 1976) seem to be influenced by the ownership structure. The presence of a firm in stock markets allows constant pricing, but it is subject to interference from factors unrelated to the firm’s fundamentals. Thus, there is usually a divergence between the technical valuation based on the firm’s fundamentals and firm market valuation (ELNATHAN; GAVIOUS; HAUSER, 2009; CUNHA; MARTINS; ASSAF NETO, 2012).

We identified the valuation reports of all Brazilian publicly traded firms that held a public offer between 2002 and 2012. The study proposes two econometric models to estimate the difference between the value of the company in the valuation report and the market value of the company. The models are estimated by ordinary least squares with the correction for heteroskedasticity being performed using a standard robust estimation.

The results show the strong influence of ownership concentration on the difference between the firm value according to the valuation report and firm market value. Ownership concentration in the hands of the major shareholder, have a significant positive effect on the value difference. This result confirms earlier findings about the effect of the ownership structure on the value of the company disclosed in the assessment report prepared by financial experts (ELNATHAN et al 2009). This study is a pioneer in the use of the costs of preparing the valuation report in the company valuation studies.

In any firm, highly concentrated ownership among dominant shareholders may contribute to the use of private benefits of control, i.e., shareholders with considerable control may consider their interests as more important than those of other shareholders. The growing number of studies on the ownership concentration, added to the importance of the firm valuation process to the market, motivated the present study, which analyses the impact of the ownership concentration on the difference between firm value disclosed in the valuation report and firm market value.

CUNHA, M. F.; MARTINS, E.; ASSAF NETO, A. A finalidade da avaliação de empresas, no Brasil, apresenta viés?: Evidências empíricas sob o ponto de vista do desempenho econômico-financeiro. Revista Contabilidade Vista & Revista, v. 23, n. 3, p. 15-47, 2012. ELNATHAN, D.; GAVIOUS, I.; HAUSER, S. On the Added Value of Firm Valuation by Financial Experts. International Journal of Business and Management, v. 4, n. 3, p. 70-85, 2009. JENSEN, M. C.; MECKLING, W. H. Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Cost Ownership Structure. Journal of Financial Economics, v. 3, n. 4, p. 305-360, 1976.