Listed Family Firms: Industrial and Geographical Context, Governance and Performance

Abstract

This report investigates listed family firms in the UK and focuses on their incidence, industrial and geographical context, governance and performance. At the time of writing we identified 70 family firms who were listed in the years 2007-2009. The firms were listed on the London Stock Exchange, ShareMark or the Plus Stock Exchange (the latter two stock exchanges for smaller firms). In order to qualify as a family firm the European definition of a public family firm was applied which stipulates that 25% of the equity is owned by the family. The average turnover of listed family firms in 2009 was £407 million and they employed on average 2,907 employees. Comparisons have been made throughout the report with a comparator group which consists of all listed firms in the UK (approximately 3,300 firms). Listed family firms in the UK have superior profitability and considerably less debt than the population of listed firms in the UK but have a lower growth rate.