Main purpose of this study was to analyze status of corresponded countries’ Governance and Ownership Structure through literature review for papers on the Governance and Ownership Structure of the six European developed countries (France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands) on corresponded countries’ conglomerate group and evaluate changes of Europe’s Corporate Governance and Ownership Structure with respect to the orientation of progression, especially as a result of the global financial market liberalization since 2000s.

In order to compare and analyze the change and status of corporate governance structure in Europe’s developed countries 1) look about the historical background the formation of the country’s corporate governance structure of the institutional background which is important for ownership structure. 2) Look about the formation for the current regulatory environment of the legal system, mainly the principles of shareholding structure and the corporate governance structure principles as examining the legal regulatory information on changes in the corporate governance structure principles and the pyramid investment structure and a cross-shareholding structure. 3) Look about the recent changes in the country’s corporate governance and ownership structure and historical changes in the process or what were the agents led these changes. 4) Gather up the case of the business group in each country forming a pyramid investment structure, a cross-shareholding structure or a circulating investment structure, etc. 5) Based on these analysis, evaluate the country’s characteristics and the status of change of the corporate governance and ownership structure briefly and with this evaluation, derive the implications for South Korea briefly. In order to look about those changes, among the European countries Germany, France and Italy were analyzed who got a dominant influence and by analyzing the three countries Belgium, Netherlands and Sweden were analyzed as an open and small countries, he status and changes for the corporate governance structure of the large countries and the open and small countries were compared to and were analyzed the same time.

Stylized Facts derived through a comparative analysis for the changes, status and institutional background of corporate governance and ownership structure of the major developed countries in Europe are as follows. Stylized Facts 1. The development of defensive systems for a control stability of the country business groups, Stylized Facts 2. No ownership restrictions related to holding company and pyramid investment, Stylized Facts 3. No ownership restrictions for general cross-shareholding , Stylized Facts 4. Since the late 1990s, the principles for the corporate governance structure and the strengthening of shareholder rights, Stylized Facts 5. Recent ownership decentralization of the new company and the weakening of the business group links, Stylized Facts 6. The continuation of the traditional business groups, Stylized Facts 7. the diversity of pyramid investment structure and cross-shareholding structure of business groups, etc.

These traditional governance and ownership system of a business group does not appear to be significant changes in spite of the liberalization of the global financial markets and the consequent pressure of shares expansion of the international institutional investors. Due to some of the newly listed companies and IPO of multinational corporations, ownership was decentralized in the European stock markets and the companies of high foreign ownership emerged, but traditionally, business groups that make up the European economy does not appear to be affected by existing pyramid investment schemes and the stable governance and ownership structure through a multi-voting system. Because all countries had the reigns of the country’s major Business groups stable and did not allow mergers and acquisitions by foreign and industry ruling.

The status, changes and institutional background of ownership and governance structure of these developed countries in Europe also give high implications on Korea. Particularly since the financial crisis, our country that mergers and acquisitions by foreigners has come true in, the introduction of a variety of protective measures are needed for the vulnerability of ownership and governance structure of the Korean business group and the stability of the control.