Different disclosure activities and sophisticated investors

ABSTRACT This article aims to verify what the influence is of different disclosure activities on the concentration of more sophisticated investors in Brazilian companies. The study fills a gap regarding the influence that disclosure activities can have on the concentration of sophisticated investors in Brazilian firms, considering that this may occur due to their ability to maximize the usefulness of the information disclosed and the return on investments, with a reduction in the cost of allocated funds. This subject is relevant because it verifies not the clientless effect of disclosure, presented by the only study previously developed on the subject in the United States (Kalay, 2015), but rather the influence that disclosure activities (earnings forecasts, market communications, and investor relations [IR]) have on the most sophisticated investors’ decisions to allocate funds in companies in the Brazilian market. As an impact on the area, it was noted that those companies that release market communications attract the investment of funds and the concentration of sophisticated investors much more than those that present better IR and release profit forecasts. We studied 89 publicly-traded companies whose reference forms were published in the period from 2011 to 2016. The number of institutional investors disclosed in the reference forms was used as a proxy to categorize them as more sophisticated. The different disclosure activities were represented by the disclosure of profit forecasts, the number of market communications, and the best IR. The best IR proxy was categorized using the companies awarded by IR Magazine Brazil that presented the best IR in the study period. The results of this study show that the most sophisticated investors concentrated in companies with better IR, in those that do not disclose profit forecasts, and in companies with a greater number of disclosed market communications. The disclosure of market communications is the disclosure activity that most influences the concentration of sophisticated investors in Brazilian companies that use more voluntary disclosure than discretionary disclosure to allocate their funds.

摘要 本文旨在探究不同信息披露行为对巴西企业中成熟投资者集中度的影响。本研究弥补了现有研究的不足：过往针对披露行为与巴西企业成熟投资者集中度关系的探讨，未充分考虑该影响的作用机制——即成熟投资者可通过最大化披露信息的效用、提升投资回报率，同时降低资金配置成本，进而影响其投资决策。本研究议题具备重要学术价值：不同于此前美国学者Kalay（2015）针对该主题仅有的一项研究所提出的披露行为无客户效应，本文聚焦于三类披露活动——盈利预测、市场沟通与投资者关系（IR），探究其对巴西市场成熟投资者进行企业资金配置决策的影响。本研究的核心研究发现显示：相较于具备更优质投资者关系且发布盈利预测的企业，发布市场沟通信息的企业更能吸引资金流入，并显著提升成熟投资者的集中度。本研究选取89家巴西上市公司作为研究样本，其2011至2016年期间披露的参考申报文件均公开可查。研究以参考申报文件中披露的机构投资者数量作为代理变量，将投资者划分为成熟投资者类别。三类披露活动分别以盈利预测披露情况、市场沟通信息发布数量，以及优质投资者关系水平作为代理指标。其中，优质投资者关系水平以研究周期内获评《IR Magazine巴西版》最佳投资者关系的企业作为代理样本。本研究结果表明，成熟投资者更倾向于集中于三类企业：具备更优质投资者关系的企业、未披露盈利预测的企业，以及发布更多市场沟通信息的企业。在那些更多采用自愿性披露而非酌情性披露开展资金配置的巴西企业中，市场沟通信息披露是对成熟投资者集中度影响最为显著的披露活动。