Capital Structure and Financial Performance of Insurance companies listed at Nairobi Securities Exchange.

Abstract

Capital structure refers to the mix of debt and equity used by a firm in financing its assets. It enables a firm to determine its financial strengths and to identify its weaknesses and also strengthens the firm’s ability to meet maturing obligations and to convert assets into cash. The research was guided by the objective to establish the relationship between capital structure and financial performance of listed insurance companies at NSE in Kenya. To meet the objectives of the study, a descriptive research design was adopted. The study mainly used secondary data collected from audited Financial statements from listed insurance firms at NSE for 10 years. The population of interest was the performance as measured by ROA, ROE and capital structure as measured by the debt/equity ratio from the Financial years from 2009 to 2018. Data obtained from insurance companies for a period of ten years was analyzed using financial ratios to ascertain the change in financial performance as a result of different capital structures. Data was presented using tables and analysed by statistical software STATA version 15.. Capital structure decision was found to be critical for any business organization due to the need of maximizing returns to various organizational components, and also because of the impact such a decision has on a firm’s ability to deal with its competitive and volatile environment effectively. The findings indicated that debt to equity ratio accounted for a smaller percentage of financial performance of all three types of insurance companies. There was a positive but weak relationship between capital structure and financial performance.