5. Conclusions
This study analyses the level and value of cash holdings for shipping companies. We construct a sample consisting of 144 globally listed shipping companies paired with matched manufacturing companies that are most ‘similar.’ Overall, shipping companies seem to manage their cash positions more conservatively and hold up to three times more cash than their manufacturing matches in almost every year of our sample period. Given that the shipping industry is generally considered as risky due to its cyclicality, its high information asymmetry, and its high financial as well as operating leverage, the high level of cash holdings is consistent with a precautionary motive.
We document that shipping companies hold more cash because they value an additional dollar of cash higher than their manufacturing peers, irrespective of whether they are financially constrained or not. It seems that even seemingly unconstrained shipping companies have problems raising external funds, and thus an additional dollar of cash is highly valuable for them. The country of origin and the associated cultural background also have an impact on their marginal value of cash. In particular, shipping companies exhibit a higher marginal value of cash when they originate from a country with lower individualism and higher uncertainty avoidance scores. This finding can be explained by the more concentrated ownership evidenced in shipping, which implies a strong influence of the largest shareholder’s cultural traits on corporate decision making.
