Leverage Ratio Of Firms Research Articles

Ownership, capital structure and financing decision: Evidence from the UK

This paper examines whether and to what degree agency conflicts in ownership structure affect firm leverage ratios and external financing decisions, using a universal sample of UK firms from 1998 to 2012. We use two distinctive measures to capture ownership structure, namely, managerial share ownership (MSO) and institutional ownership. Our empirical results show a non-monotonic relation between MSO and the debt ratio, supporting two competing theories: interest alignment theory and the management entrenchment hypothesis. Nevertheless, institutional ownership is found to be positively related to firm leverage levels. Our results further suggest that firms with concentrated MSO decrease their leverage by increasing the probability of issuing equity over bonds, an effect strengthened during hot market periods.

Impact of ownership structure on capital structure of New Zealand unlisted firms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to use a panel of New Zealand unlisted firms from 1998 to 2009 to examine the relationship between ownership structure and firm leverage ratios. Although, the choice of the debt in capital structure is important for all firms, the scale effects may influence the degree of influence of particular financial theories upon capital structure. Design/methodology/approach – To control the endogeneity effect of insider ownership, this study uses the dynamic panel generalised method of moment estimation and uses the Granger causality test to check the causality effect of leverage and insider ownership. Findings – The findings suggest an inverse U-shape relationship of insider ownership and leverage, indicating higher insider ownership increases management entrenchment while lower insider ownership increases misalignment of the interests of management and owners. Moreover, this study finds bi-directional causation between insider ownership and firm leverage ratios. Practical implications – Finance policy needs to vary across firm type, industries and firm characteristics and should match the different borrowing requirements of small business. Originality/value – This paper contributes to literature by investigating whether the structure of equity ownership can impact cross-sectional variations in capital structure. Moreover, most of the capital structure research has been conducted in large markets like USA and publicly listed firms but this paper concentrates on the evidence from New Zealand unlisted businesses. Also, the econometric analysis is more robust due to controlling for the endogeneity effect of insider ownership.

Real Estate Prices and Firm Capital Structure

This paper examines the impact of real estate prices on firm capital structure decisions. For a typical U.S. listed company, a one-standard-deviation increase in predicted value of firm pledgeable collateral translates into a 3 percentage points increase in firm leverage ratio. The identification strategy employs a triple interaction of MSA-level land supply elasticity, real estate prices, and a measure of a firm's real estate holdings as an exogenous source of variation in firm collateral values. Firms significantly change their debt structure in response to collateral value appreciation. The results indicate the importance of collateral values in mitigating potential informational imperfections.

Speed of adjustment: Evidence from Borsa Istanbul

In this study, we investigate the speed of adjustment for leverage ratios of firms listed on Borsa Istanbul, in order to investigate the prediction of the trade-off theory, regarding capital structure rebalancing. For this purpose, we estimate the speed of adjustment by using Generalized Method of Moments system estimation technique. The results of this estimation suggest the speed of adjustment as approximately 29%. This significant speed of adjustment is consistent with the prediction of trade-off theory, which suggests that firms follow target capital structures and when the firms' leverage ratios deviate from these targets; they make financial decisions with the goal of closing the gap between the previous year's leverage and target leverage of the current period.

Do Firms Follow Target Capital Structures? Evidence from Borsa Istanbul

In this study, we investigate the speed of adjustment for leverage ratios of firms listed on Borsa Istanbul, in order to investigate whether or not firms have target capital structures; and also if they do, how fast they close the deviation between the previous year’s leverage ratio and the current year’s target leverage.For this purpose, we estimate the speed of adjustment by using the GMM system estimation technique. The results of this estimation suggest that the speed of adjustment as approximately 29%. This significant speed of adjustment is consistent with the prediction of the trade-off theory, which suggests that firms follow target capital structures; and when the firms’ leverage ratios deviate from these targets, and they make financial decisions with the goal of closing the gap between the previous year’s leverage and target leverage of the current period.

Contagion effect on bond portfolio risk measures in a hybrid credit risk model

This paper illustrates how modelling the contagion effect among assets of a given bond portfolio changes the risk perception associated to it. This empirical work is developed in a hybrid credit risk framework that incorporates recovery rate risk. Dependence structures among firms and between external shocks affecting firms together are considered. The presence of correlations among firm leverage ratios and the interrelation between default probabilities and recovery rates produces clusters of defaults with low recovery rates. This has a major impact on standard risk measures such as Value-at-Risk and conditional tail expectation. Consequently, an appropriate measurement of the contagion has a tremendous effect on the capital requirement of many financial institutions.

Capital structure, executive compensation, and investment efficiency

This paper examines how the similarity between the executive compensation leverage ratio and the firm leverage ratio affects the quality of the firm’s investment decisions. A larger leverage gap (i.e., a bigger difference between these two ratios) leads to more investment distortions. Managers with more debt-like compensation components tend to under-invest, whereas managers with larger equity-based compensation engage more in over-investment. Furthermore, investment distortion is likely to increase the equity (debt) value when compensation leverage is lower (higher) than firm leverage. These findings suggest that managers can deviate from an optimal investment policy to increase the value of their portfolio, and that a lower leverage gap can reduce agency costs.

Credit Spreads, Recovery Rates and Bond Portfolio Risk Measures in a Hybrid Credit Risk Model

This paper presents a framework in which many structural credit risk models can be made hybrid by randomizing the default trigger, while keeping the capital structure intact. This produces random recovery rates negatively correlated with the default probability. The approach is implemented on a firm-by-firm basis using maximum likelihood and the unscented Kalman filter (UKF) on each of the 225 companies of the CDX NA IG and HY indices using weekly CDS data from December 2007 to January 2012. Adding the surprise element and the time-varying distribution of recovery rates has a large impact on credit spreads as it modifies both the level and shape of the curves. When a bond portfolio is considered, the presence of dependence among firm leverage ratios and between default probabilities and recovery rates produces clusters of defaults with low recovery rates. It has a major impact on standard risk measures such as Value- at-Risk and conditional tail expectation.

Syndicated bank loans and capital structure

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the impact of interest rates on the size and the maturity choice of a syndicated bank loan. In addition, it attempts to determine the long‐run impact of a syndicated loan on the borrower's capital structure.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses a sample of 6,903 syndicated bank loans in the USA, covering the period 1984‐2004. First, all syndicated loans are categorized into two groups: loans in periods of increasing interest rates, and loans in periods of decreasing rates. Then, non‐parametric tests are performed to compare the characteristics of the two groups, including the proceeds from the loans, and robust regressions are used to examine the impact of the interest rates on the maturity choice. Finally, robust regressions are employed to examine the long‐run impact of the interest rates on the borrowers' leverage ratios.FindingsOn the whole, the results reject the market timing theory of capital structure for syndicated bank loans. Firms in the two groups borrow in similar amounts, and in the long run, the difference between the two groups' leverage ratios is statistically insignificant. On the other hand, firms tend to choose longer maturities when the interest rates are low compared to the rates two or three years ago.Originality/valueTo the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first study that links debt market conditions to the leverage ratios of firms that borrow in the syndicated bank loan market. In other words, this is the first study that tests the market timing theory of capital structure for syndicated bank loans.

Do Peer Firms Affect Corporate Financial Policy?

We show that corporate financial policies are highly interdependent; firms make financing decisions in large part by responding to the financing decisions of their peers, as opposed to changes in firm-specific characteristics. On average, a one standard deviation change in peer firms' leverage ratios is associated with an 11% change in own firm leverage ratios --- a marginal effect that is significantly larger than that of any other observable determinant and one that is driven by interdependencies among debt and equity issuance decisions. Consistent with information-based theories of learning and reputation, we find that smaller, more financially constrained firms with lower paid and less experienced CEOs are more likely to mimic their peers. Additionally, we quantify the externalities engendered by these peer effects, which can amplify the impact of changes in exogenous determinants on leverage by almost 70%.

Corporate Investment, Taxation, and Tobin's Q: Evidence from Japanese Firms and Industries

The paper addresses a question of how taxation affects the cost of capital of firms and the value of firms as measured by Tobin's q. We construct a type of Real Business Cycle model and derive our original unlevered q on an after tax base after removing the financial tax shield effects in order to clearly distinguish between the real operating profitability of firms and their financing decisions. Our model is an extended version of the two-sector model originally developed by Christiano and Fisher (1995) and can incorporate both corporate taxation and individual taxation. In our model both homogenous expectations in the capital market and labor immobility are assumed as in Christiano and Fisher and the unlevered q-value is derived from our partial equilibrium solutions. Some comparative static results are demonstrated and model predictions are presented. In a latter empirical part of our paper, we investigate how the unlevered after-tax q-values versus the conventional Tobin's q vary between the two business sectors in Japan according to the differences in the marginal tax rates and the leverage ratios of firms as well as over the different phases of business cycles. Overall, the data supports the model predictions and rationalizes the use of our unlevered q.

Industry Effects and Banking Relationship as Determinants of Small Firm Capital Structure Decisions

This work examines the leverage ratios of firms covered by the 1998 SSBF Survey. We find that small firms in general are significantly more levered than their larger counterparts in an industry-matched Compustat sample, but the difference is at least partially explained by differences in industry distributions of the two samples. Our regression results provide some interesting contrasts to previous studies. In examining the effects of relationship banking on deviations from industry leverage norms, we find that a close banking relationship is related to a lower leverage, even after controlling for industry medians, and also that firms with a closer primary banking relationship adhere more closely to industry norms. Counter to previous research, we also find that small business leverage is negatively correlated with total assets.

Information Risk and Capital Structure

In this paper, we investigate the effects of information asymmetry across equity investor groups as an explanation for the capital structure decisions of the firm. We test empirically whether differences in information across outside investors have any bearing on the leverage ratios of firms and on their choice of financing instrument when raising external capital. We use the probability of information-based trading (PIN) estimated using trade based data to test our theory. We find that firms with higher information risk (extrinsic information asymmetry across groups of investors) measured using PIN have higher market leverage. Extrinsic information asymmetry also seems to play a significant role in the firm's decision to issue debt or equity when raising capital, with high PIN firms more likely to issue debt. Comparing firms that issued debt and repurchased equity in the same year (increased leverage) with those that issued equity and repurchased debt in the same year (decreased leverage), we find firms with higher extrinsic information asymmetry are more likely to increase their leverage. These results strongly support the hypothesis that information risk affects capital structure after controlling for information asymmetry between firm managers and outside investors.

Managerial Preferences, Corporate Governance, and Financial Structure

Conflicts of interest between insiders (e.g, controlling shareholders) and outsiders (e.g., minority shareholders) are central to the analysis of modern corporation. In an integrated continuous-time contingent claims framework with imperfect corporate governance, we examine a controlling shareholder's optimal choice of capital structure, ownership concentration, private benefit diversion, consumption, and financial market investment. We derive solutions in explicit parametric forms up to numerical integrations. In addition to generating implications consistent with existing empirical evidence, we also show that managerial preference characteristics (such as risk aversion and impatience), corporate governance, and financial market are important determinants of equity value, credit spread, agency costs, capital structure, and ownership concentration. Our model produces many novel empirically testable predictions. For example, it implies that a more risk averse or a less impatient entrepreneur issues less debt and more equity, and that stronger corporate governance leads to higher equity value, lower leverage, less ownership concentration, and lower credit spread. In addition, it also suggests that as the Sharpe ratio in the financial market increases, firm leverage ratio, agency costs, and credit spread all increase.

Regulatory Risk, Market Risk and Capital Structure: Evidence from U.S. Electric Utilities

There is a sharp contrast when one compares firm leverage ratios between U.S. and British electric utilities, which have both been deregulated in the past decade. In the U.S., leverage ratios have been declining while in the U.K., they show a marked increase. To better understand the decline in leverage of U.S. investor owned electric utilities, this paper investigates the impact of deregulation on the capital structure decisions of these firms. We find that the heightened uncertainty created by the deregulation process and the associated increase in both regulatory and market risks have resulted in firms reducing their leverage ratios. Specifically, we find that the most important factors that impact capital structure are: 1) the stranded cost recovery and divestiture policies and 2) the potential loss of market share due to competition and fears of downward pressure on prices i.e. market risk. We also find that belonging to a holding company lowers leverage while the possibility of a merger decreases leverage. Identifying the importance of these variables for a firm's financing decisions not only furthers our understanding of capital structure choice but also sheds light on the financial effects of deregulation, which have not been previously documented.

The relationship between the valuation effect of equity financing and firm-specific characteristics

The findings of this study indicate that although the overall announcement effect of equity offerings is negative on the issuing firms' common stock prices, 23 percent of the sample firms have a positive two-day announcement period stock abnormal return (CAR). Further tests show that firms in the positive CAR group have significantly higher research and development (R&D) and profitability than firms in the negative CAR group, while the average leverage ratio of firms in the positive CAR group are significantly lower. Results of the regression analysis suggest a positive relation between the price effect and R&D as well as the profitability ratio. It also is found that only in the sample of large R&D firms is the magnitude of R&D significantly associated with the magnitude of announcement effect.