Multiple large shareholders, blockholder trading and stock price crash risk

Abstract

We show that in a setting with a strong concern for controlling shareholder entrenchment, firms with multiple large shareholders (MLS) are more likely to experience stock price crashes. As a result, when anticipating future revelations of bad news concerning corporate misconduct on information disclosure, large shareholders can exploit their information advantage and initiate their sales ex ante as far as eight quarters ahead. The positive association between MLS and crashes is more pronounced in the presence of noncontrolling shareholders' sales. Also, the positive predictive power of MLS on crash risk is more potent in firms with weak internal or external governance.