Corporate governance in founders’ controlled companies

Abstract

Transition process had a significant impact on the corporate governance in Poland leading to the emergence of new control patterns and institutions. The transition changed the characteristics of shareholder structure of companies shifting ownership from public to private hands. The implemented reforms not only led to privatization of state owned enterprises, but also contributed to the development of newly founded companies. Currently, companies set up after 1989 constitute a dominant group of listed companies’ population depicting their specific corporate governance characteristics. These companies reveal ownership concentration and are often controlled by founders adopting pyramidal structures. The article presents the phenomenon of pyramidal structures discussing the ownership structure of Polish listed companies. It also illustrates the issues with data as well as short presentation of case studies of three founder’s controlled companies, which use pyramids and reveal strong control by their founders.