Malaysia privatization: A comprehensive study

As the first comprehensive study on privatization in Malaysia, this paper compares financial and operating performance of a sample of 24 firms before and after privatization. The 24 firms were privatized via public listing on the Malaysian exchange. Measures that improve following privatization include profitability, output level, and dividend payout; leverage declines. We also observe increased linkages between ownership and corporate governance with such performance changes. By and large, our results are similar to the results of the directly comparable multi-country studies of Megginson, Nash, and van Randenborgh (1994), Boubakri and Cosset (1998), and D'Souza and Megginson (1999).