Corporate Mergers As Related-Party Transactions In Chile

Like most Latin American countries (and other emerging markets), the corporate structure in Chile presents high ownership concentration characterized by the presence of family-owned conglomerates.¹ This structure could eventually create in some cases conflicts of interest between the controlling shareholder and minority shareholders. The controlling shareholder usually obtains control through the acquisition of the majority of the company's shares, and in other cases in order to maintain control of the firms that are part of the business conglomerate it uses pyramidal schemes and dual class stocks. Considering the foregoing, minority shareholders may eventually be affected if the controlling shareholder benefits from asymmetry of information or discrepancies between the controlling shareholder and minority shareholders necessarily lead to the prevailing interests of the latter.