the answer to your first question is yes...........
to the second part, the reason a financial institution for example would buy these shares (not in all cases) is for a number of reasons.
as a few examples...
1. the company has a placing on the stock exchange that has been in business for some time - this has value maybe not much but something which contributes (think for example UK ready made companies you can purchase online that has books dating back years ago - they can cost you thousands)
2. regardless of whether or not the company is actually doing some sort of business they still actually have a business, a product or a service - even if it just a concept it has value.
3. the company has a share holder base which is of huge value - even though there maybe no money in the accounts it still has the biggest credit score based on the fact it has a number of share holders.
not only this but it also helps if you want to list onto a major stock exchange where not only funds are needed but also a minimum number of share holders. (do you know how much money companies loose when offering IPO's - legit companies)
this is just a few reason to the value in these companies.
financial institutions have the biggest clients who are looking for all kinds of things. its just a simple case of identifying value.
we never even bother with looking at the balance sheets simply because they can be manipulated, we actually go out to identify real value other then what everyone see's on bloomberg.
hope this answers your question