THE IMPACT OF GOVERNMENT INVESTMENT ORGANIZATIONS IN MALAYSIA ON THE PERFORMANCE OF THEIR PORTFOLIO COMPANIES

Research into the impact of government ownership on the financial performance of listed companies typically assumes the government to be a monolithic entity and fails to consider that government ownership rights are administered by different types of government organizations. Exploring the financial performance of government controlled listed companies we find that in Malaysia the impact of government ownership varies depending on the type of organization which manages the government's ownership stakes. Taking into account golden Share provisions as well as the presence of senior civil servants and of politicians on boards of Directors, we find that firms controlled by investment organizations under federal government control tend to outperform firms controlled by regional governments' investment organizations.