Eigentümerstrukturen von Schweizer Aktiengesellschaften

The ownership structure of a corporation is in many respects a crucial determinant from a corporate governance perspective. In finance and business economics, a large variety of theoretical and empirical work has focused on corporate ownership structures and their implications. In the legal field, however, the topic has been rather neglected so far. This article provides an empirical study of ownership structures in Swiss corporations, thereby distinguishing corporations listed on Swiss and foreign stock exchanges, corporations traded over-the-counter and corporations without a stock exchange listing and over-the-counter trading. The article also elaborates on the fundamental question of the importance that can and should be attached to the ownership structure in corporate and capital market law. The empirical study reveals that the ownership structure of listed corporations is almost always home to large shareholders, often also controlling shareholders. The study feeds divergent…