Managerial Ownership and Corporate Cash Holdings: Insights from an Emerging Market

This paper examines the impact of managerial ownership on cash holding decisions of the firms listed in Borsa Istanbul 100 index between 2005 and 2013. Main aim of the study is to analyse whether there is any evidence for managerial alignment or managerial entrenchment effect on the corporate cash holdings. A non-monotonic relation between managerial ownership and cash holding is found. The findings indicate that managerial ownership aligns the interests of managers with those of shareholders. These firms with managerial ownership prefer to hold less cash. In addition, it is reported that at higher level of managerial ownership, entrenchment effect of managers is seen. Managers practice their own interests at the expense of shareholders’ and the firms with higher level of managerial ownership hold more cash. The results also reveal that prior year’s cash holding positively affects this year’s cash holding. Firm size, liquidity and tangibility are also effective on cash holding decisions of Turkish firms.