Foreign Ownership and Firm Value

The Amman Stock Exchange has experienced an increase in foreign ownership which raises questions about the impact of ownership structure on firm value. This book has moved to unravel the links between foreign ownership and firm value in a Jordanian context. Statistical techniques, such as piecewise regressions, are used to examine the ownership-value relationship for a sample of 46 industrial and service companies for the period 1990 to 2000. The results indicate a non-linear relationship between foreign ownership and firm value. Foreign ownership at levels between 0 and 1% show a positive effect on firm value. However, as foreign ownership increases there is an apparent negative effect on firm value. Furthermore, the relationship between foreign ownership and firm value return to a positive level at when foreign ownership exceeds 20%.