UK AND US MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS CAPITAL STRUCTURE: DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO SHAREHOLDER VALUE MAXIMIZATION

The shareholder value maximization is the keystone of the actual stage of capitalism. The objective function of publicly quoted corporations is nowadays the maximization of the shareholders’ wealth, i.e. the sum of dividends and capital gains. Despite the increasing international financial opening, the shareholder value model, usually associated with UK and US, is typically presented as opposed to that of Continental Europe (i.e. Germany, France) and Japan. Yet, less attention is paid to the particularities of the shareholder value model across its representative countries. Are American and British corporations using similar financial strategies in response to shareholders exigencies? The empirical analysis conducted herein allows us to assert that, despite the association of both countries to the same model, there are striking differences in the financing strategies of UK and US MNCs.