Regression results in Table 5 show that the top ten shareholdings are negatively related to the debt ratio and all estimates are statistically sig-nificant. This suggests that ownership disper-sion leads to the high agency cost of equity. It seems against the policy of the World Bank to recommend dispersion of the ownership of family businesses or large shareholdings in order to improve corporate management in Asia (see Claessens et ah, 2000). Further examination is thus needed.
Malays' shareholdings, including direct holdings of individuals and indirect holdings