Фактори впливу на структуру капіталу нефінансових корпорацій України

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the factors that explain the capital structure of Ukrainian non-financial corporations. The study was carried out on a sample of 8525 Ukrainian large and medium-sized enterprises on the time horizon of 2014-2019, covering one economic cycle. Banks and non-bank financial institutions are excluded from the sample of enterprises, since the structure of their assets differs from that of commercial companies. To determine the impact of fundamental factors, the capital structure of companies is represented separately by three indicators: i) the level of current debt, ii) the level of long-term debt, and iii) the level of debt in general in the structure of liabilities of enterprises. The list of indicators that explain the capital structure of Ukrainian companies includes fundamental indicators – profitability, company size, asset structure, current liquidity, growth; and macroeconomic variables: GDP growth and consumer price index. The results of the study confirm that the conception of sequential actions best explains the principle by which Ukrainian companies form the structure of liabilities. According to the results of the modeling, the company’s factors demonstrate statistical significance, but do not explain the variation in the level of debt in terms of types of economic activity. Only the factors of profitability, asset structure and type of economic activity are statistically significant for all types of models. The sign of the influence of factors that determine the capital structure of Ukrainian companies corresponds to the results of studies of both developed countries and transition economies. Also, the impact of factors on the level of indebtedness of enterprises differs significantly depending on the maturity of obligations. This study can be further developed by updating the calculations and data that include the period of recent crises. This will allow us to check whether companies have changed their approaches to choosing a capital structure during the wartime.