Capital structure of family firms: the effect of debt and equity market timing

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mushtaq Muhammad ◽  
Chu Ei Yet ◽  
Muhammad Tahir ◽  
Abdul Majid Nasir

PurposeThis study aims to investigate how the timing behavior affects the capital structure decisions of South Asian family firms. A strand of literature is available based on the capital structure of firms in general but inconsistent with family businesses framework and not from market timing outlook. This study looks at the issues from the market timing perspectives of both equity and debt market timing.Design/methodology/approachThe sample of the study is the listed family firms of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The firm-level data are collected from Thomson Reuters' DataStream and the ownership data collected from the countries' stock exchanges and financial statements of the family firms.FindingsThe results show that there is strong support for the market timing in the family firms' capital structure. Moreover, the financial crisis of 2007–2009 surprisingly had a positive effect on the capital structure of South Asian family business.Originality/valueThis study looks at the issues from the market timing perspectives of both equity and debt market timing. It provides evidence for supporting the equity and debt market timing effect on the capital structure and financing decision of family firms. It also addresses the impact of the 2007–2009 financial crisis on the capital structure of family firms.

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Morri ◽  
Andrea Artegiani

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test whether the financial crisis has affected the capital structure of real estate companies in Europe and whether these impacts can be studied utilizing the variables traditionally used by the trade-off and pecking-order theories to explain the capital structure of companies. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a fixed-effect panel regression analysis and a sample composed of companies included in the EPRA/NAREIT Europe Index. The effect of the financial crisis has been accounted for within the model by means of a dummy variable. Findings – The global financial crisis did have an impact on the capital structure of companies and the main variables traditionally used by the trade-off and pecking order theories proved to be suitable in explaining the capital structure of real estate companies. Real estate investment trusts are, on average, more leveraged than traditional real estate companies due to their special regulatory status. Research limitations/implications – The study is limited to the European market and UK companies in particular account for a large part of the sample. In addition, major regulatory differences between the various European countries are not taken into account in the model. Originality/value – Similar studies have been performed for the US and Australian market. However, the impact of the global financial crisis has not been traditionally considered in these studies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matabane T. Mohohlo ◽  
Johan H. Hall

The financial leverage-operating leverage trade-off hypothesis states that as financial leverage increases, management of firms will seek to reduce the exposure to operating leverage in an attempt to balance the overall risk profile of a firm. It is the objective of this study to test this hypothesis and ascertain whether operating leverage can indeed be added to the list of factors that determine the capital structure of South African firms. Forty-six firms listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange between 1994 and 2015 are analysed and the impact of operating leverage is determined. The results are split into two periods, that is, the period before the global financial crisis (1994–2007) and after the global financial crisis (2008–2015). The impact of operating leverage during these two periods is then compared to determine whether a change in the impact of operating leverage on the capital structure can be observed especially following the crisis. The results show that the conservative nature of South African firms leading up to 2008 persisted even after the global financial crisis. At an industry level, the results reveal that operating leverage does not have a noticeable impact on capital structure with the exception of firms in the industrials sector of the South African economy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Elisabete Neves ◽  
Zélia Serrasqueiro ◽  
António Dias ◽  
Cristina Hermano

Purpose This paper aims to analyse the Portuguese companies’ determinants of capital structure. To reach this objective, the authors used data from 37 non-financial Portuguese large enterprises and from 4,233 non-financial small and medium enterprises for the period 2010-2016. Additionally, the authors selected a sub-period from 2010 to 2014 for a deeper understanding of the impact of the sovereign debt crisis and the Economic Adjustment Programme of Troika on the capital structure of those companies. Design/methodology/approach Three dependent variables were tested according to debt maturity, and a dynamic panel data model, namely, the generalised method of moments system estimator, was used to test the formulated research hypotheses following Arellano and Bover (1995) and Blundell and Bond (1998) to capture the dynamic nature of the firm’s capital structure decisions. Findings In general, the results point out that the capital structure decisions depend on a set of firm-specific factors, and that the effects of the determinants of the debt maturity ratios differ according to the type of firm, i.e. large/small firms, and the economic cycle. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that has been carried out in Portugal by using two samples of large and small companies for analysing the effects of the Economic Adjustment Programme of Troika on the capital structure of companies. The authors seek to understand which type of companies suffered more because of the effects of the Economic Adjustment Programme of Troika during this period, and which are the capital structure determinants that present greater change. Contrary to what might be expected, large companies are the firms that suffer most from the Economic Adjustment Programme. Probably, because these companies are the most immediate, most scrutinised and those that must show abroad that the bank did not fund them in the long term, because of the imposition and limits to grant credit faced by the banks themselves.


2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Tommasetti ◽  
Marcelo Á. da Silva Macedo ◽  
Frederico A. Azevedo de Carvalho ◽  
Sergio Barile

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature on financial reporting quality (FRQ) within family firms (FFs), assessing whether longevity can determine a different propensity to earning management (EM) behaviors. Design/methodology/approach The sample, composed by Italian and Brazilian listed family (and non-family) firms, is segregated into old and young. For each subsample, unsigned discretionary accruals are calculated, using two different EM models. A linear regression model is then proposed, together with some robustness tests, to confirm the research hypothesis. Findings The outcome is that, within FFs, the entrenchment effect seems to be diminishing with the company’s age, up to become lower than the alignment effect. With some caveat, research also demonstrates that old FFs are more propense to supply higher FRQ than any other subsample group. Research limitations/implications The authors demonstrated that, in terms of EM decision process, FFs become virtuous just with time. More research is needed to evaluate the impact of the share and management control separately and to analyze different generation segmentation. Practical implications This paper could help non-family stakeholders, as it shows that different company types (family vs non-family), at a different stage of the life-cycle (young vs old) have a different attitude toward FRQ. On the other hand, family owners could exploit the longevity as a value driver. Originality/value This paper suggests that agency theory and socio-emotional theory are complementary in explaining the family control role in earnings management decisions. The study also contributes to the debate of FF homogeneity and on risk behavior in FFs, often portrayed as having a patient capital.


Author(s):  
Nur Azura B.T. Sanusi

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the impact of wealth tax (zakat) and corporate tax (CT) on the firm's capital structure. The pioneering works of capital structure were introduced by Modgliani and Miller (1958). Subsequently, these studies were extended by other authors such as Elton and Gruber (1970), Miller (1977), DeAngelo and Masulis (1980), Mackie-Mason (1990), Harris and Raviv (1991), Rajan and Zingales (1995) and Booth et al. (2001). The diversity of the study covers from the advantage of CT to the cost of debt financing. The empirical evidence has also been applied to different countries with a good data access and different legal and accounting environments. However, this study is still relevant especially on the advantages of wealth tax, and the utilization of Islamic debt and equity financing to the firm's capital structure. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses the sample of Malaysian firms that are listed in the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. The cross-sectional and time-series data covering 422 companies from 1996 to 2000 are compiled from the database published by the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. All the sample firms are listed as a syariah company that normally pays the wealth tax. These data, then, are used to examine the effects of several explanatory variables, i.e. wealth tax and CT, and several controlled variables on firm capital structure decisions. Findings – The results showed that, first, the significance of wealth tax is consistent with the argument that firms that pay high wealth tax should be financed with relatively more debt. Second, as the CT rate is raised, firms are subjected to lower CT rates which would lead them to utilize more debt in their capital structures. Third, a significant relationship exists between age, size, return on assets, volatility, industry classification, tangible assets and bankruptcy with the capital structure. Originality/value – This paper viewed the tax benefits and the zakat payments in isolation. However, the tax deductions and the zakat payments are both expected to influence the capital structure decisions. The paper will study this decision and reveal the determinants that influence the capital structure decisions in general and the specific choice of payments, i.e. tax and zakat payments.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Teddy Chandra ◽  
Achmad Tavip Junaedi ◽  
Evelyn Wijaya ◽  
Martha Ng

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is (1) to determine the factors that significantly influence the capital structure, (2) to determine the factors that significantly influence profitability, (3) to find the factors that significantly influence growth opportunities, (4) to find reciprocal influence between capital structure and profitability and (5) to find reciprocal influence between capital structure and growth opportunity.Design/methodology/approachThe population of this research is a manufacturing company listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange during the period of 2010–2016. The number registered in the manufacturing sector is 144 companies. The sampling technique applied is purposive sampling. The fulfillment criteria are companies that have been approved before 2010. Another criterion is that the company is not delisting during the observation period. From that total of population, companies that meet the requirements are 117 companies. This observation was conducted for seven years since 2010–2016, so the center of the analysis of this research was a total of 819. The inferential statistics method used to analyze the research data is generalized structural component analysis (GSCA).FindingsThe results of this study indicate that (1) the factors that influence the capital structure include effective tax rate, financial flexibility, growth, uniqueness, asset Utilization, firm size and tangibility; (2) factors that affect profitability include liquidity, growth, firm age, uniqueness, tangibility, volatility, advertising and asset turnover; (3) growth opportunity have a negative and significant influence on capital structure. This means an increase in growth opportunity can be defined as an increase in depreciation that will not be used as collateral for managers to increase debt. This increase in debt will have an impact on reducing growth opportunities; (4) profitability and capital structure have a two-way causality relationship, which means they influence each other and (5) capital structure and growth opportunities have a negative reciprocal relationship.Originality/valueThe authenticity of the study is implied in the following explanation: The authors try to examine the reciprocal effect of capital structure on profitability and capital structure on growth opportunities and the factors that influence these two endogenous variables that have never been done by previous researchers. This research is motivated by research conducted by (Chathoth and Olsen, 2007; Jian-Shen Chen et al., 2009; Yang et al., 2010) using the structural equation model (SEM). However, this study uses GSCA as a method of research analysis.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ismail Kalash

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of environmental performance on the capital structure and financial performance of Turkish listed firms. Design/methodology/approach This study used data of 49 firms listed on Istanbul Stock Exchange during the period between 2014 and 2019, resulting in 205 firm-year observations. The environmental performance data were drawn from the carbon disclosure project Turkey climate change reports. Ordinary least squares and binary logistic regression models were used to examine whether environmental performance impacts the capital structure and financial performance. Findings The findings of this research revealed that environmental performance significantly positively affects the firm leverage. Findings also showed that environmental performance has a significantly positive impact on return on assets, operating profitability and return on equity, but no significant impact on stock returns. Practical implications Given the increased borrowing costs for Turkish firms after the 2018 currency crisis in Turkey, the findings of this study are very important as they enable managers of Turkish firms to make better decisions related to capital structure and to understand the role of environmental performance in reducing the cost of debt and enhancing financial performance. Originality/value To the author’s knowledge, this research is the first to investigate the effect of environmental performance on capital structure in the Turkish context, and is one of few that explained how environmental performance affects the financial performance of Turkish firms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 219
Author(s):  
Fadoua Kouki

Our study compares the impact of market timing on the capital structure of reverse leveraged buyouts (RLBOs) and initial public offerings (IPOs). Our sample is made up of 210 RLBOs and 210 public companies listed between 1995 and 2015 and linked by size (turnover) and industry (based on the first two digits of the SIC code). Our results show that the impact of market timing measures on capital structure is different between RLBOs and public companies. In accordance with Baker and Wurgler (2002) and others, these measures have a negative and significant effect on the capital structure of the two types of companies. This significance is persistent ten years after the IPO for public companies and only three years after the IPO for RLBOs. RLBOs rebalance the market timing effect on their capital structures much more quickly and therefore move toward the target debt ratio more quickly than their counterparts. These results challenge the robustness and generality of Baker and Wurgler’s (2002) market timing theory. The capital structure of RLBOs seems to be better explained by the characteristic variables of companies suggested by the theory of trade-off.


Author(s):  
Joaquim JS Ramalho ◽  
Rui MS Rita ◽  
Jacinto Vidigal da Silva

In this article, we investigate the influence of family ownership on firm leverage across different subgroups of family and non-family firms. In addition, we examine the influence of firm size, geographical location and the 2008 global financial crisis on the capital structure of family firms. In both cases, we study the probability of firms using debt and, conditional on its use, the proportion of debt issued. We find that family ownership affects both decisions positively, namely, when the firm is large or located in a metropolitan area. For small firms located outside metropolitan areas, there is no clear family ownership effect. We also find the 2008 crisis had a substantial, but diversified, impact on family firm leverage. On the one hand, all family firms were more prone to use debt after 2008; on the other, the proportion of debt held by levered family firms decreased for micro and small firms, but increased for large firms. Overall, the crisis effects on family firm leverage seem to be the result of both supply- and demand-side factors, with the former particularly affecting the availability of debt to micro and small firms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Khalil Ullah Mohammad ◽  
Mohsin Raza Khan

The severity in terms of economic activity of the Covid-19 crisis was higher than the global financial crisis. Covid-19 has not only challenged the economic activity across the world but has put to test how the bank operates under the global crises. The objective of this paper is to identify the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the South Asian banking sector. We investigate if South Asian banks have target leverage and how the Covid-19 crisis impacted their capital structure dynamics. To fulfill the objective, past data on all banks of South Asian countries listed in the Thomson Reuter Refinitiv were considered. The sample ended up including quarterly data of banks from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan Nepal and Afghanistan. Engle-Granger's two-step procedure for error correction and two-step GMM estimation was employed to measure the speed of adjustment and the impact of Covid-19 on bank capital. The study found that the capital structure determinants favor the static trade-off theory for South Asian banks. It is also observed that South Asian banks’ capital was negatively impacted by Covid-19. The analysis supports the view of leverage convergence for the capital structure. This study improves our understanding of the capital structure dynamics of banks in response to exogenous shocks in South Asia.


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