THE PERFORMANCE OF PUBLIC LISTED COMPANIES AND PRIVATIZED GOVERNMENT LINKED COMPANIES: A CASE OF JORDANIAN MARKET

Abstract

Prior studies documented that privatization leads to improved performance of privatized companies after the government relinquishment the control over the companies. Jordanian privatized companies are unique due to fact that political involvement post-privatization is still high. The setting enables us to show the effect of a unique privatization arrangement on performance of privatized companies. Second, the paper combines two approaches found in the literature to increase robustness of the results and explanations. This study examines the performance of 18 newly privatized Jordanian companies against 18-matched control group of public listed companies Non-GLCs in Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) for the period 1992–2001. We compare the performance of privatized companies (GLCs) with its benchmark (Non-GLCs) to determine the effect of privatization on company performance. Non-parametric tests were employed to examine the difference in the performance of the two groups in pre and post privatization window. We find both groups do not perform well under the study period. The performance of Non-GLCs (with private shareholding majority) is lower than the GLCs that were privatized. The low level of competition in these industries, due to the high monopoly power by the government, could be the reason why these results are different from the experience of other countries.