Ownership of dual class shares and passive investment strategies

Abstract

Previous studies of firms with two classes of stock find a price premium for the class with superior voting rights over the restricted voting rights shares. This premium changes over time and is related to the likelihood of a contested takeover attempt. These findings have implications for both passive and active investors. We find that for passive, buy-and-hold investors, restricted voting shares dominate superior voting shares in mean-variance space. This relationship also holds for a four factor model specification of stock returns. Our evidence indicates that passive, buy-and-hold investors can achieve a higher return with restricted vote shares than superior vote shares with no increase in either stand-alone or portfolio risk