Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirement for the MSc in Finance FINANCE DISSERTATION ON IDENTIFYING THE INFLUENCE OF CAPITAL STRUCTURE ON CORPORATE PERFORMANCE OF 30 UK MANUFACTURING FIRMS LISTED ON FTSE100 BETWEEN 2014 AND 2019 LY GIA HAN ID No: 19046149 Intake 3 Supervisor: Prof. To Kim Ngoc September 2020 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I am super pleased to thanks all of those who assisted and encouraged me in making this assignment possible. First of all, I want to give my heartfelt thanks to Prof. To Kim Ngoc, my supervisor, for the continual encouragement of my research and recommend my dissertation.
Along with my Supervisor, I would like to thank the rest of the lecturers and tutors at the University of West England. who gave me a good foundation in empirical and theoretical skills. Lastly, I would like to express my appreciation personally for my friends' support and inspiration during the study period of MSc. Financial at the University of West England.
1 ABSTRACT There have been many hypotheses and analyses over the past years that aim to analyze the capital structure, but no hypothesis can accurately explain the impact of capital structure on business performance. In fact, observational data provides contradictory and contrasting findings and indicates that the essence of this interaction differs greatly based on individual circumstances. This study looks empirically at the effect on the financial performance of manufacturing firms in the UK, which is a traditionally developing economy, listed in FTSE 100 from 2014 to 2019. The research utilizes panel data based on 30 listed United Kingdom manufacturing firms on the FTSE100 throughout its studied period and uses fixed effects (FE) and random effects (RE) regression, pooled Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression, the generalized method of moments (GMM) of dynamic panel system for data processing.
With respect to variables, the study discussed three separate financial success metrics including market leverage and leverage ratio are known as independent valuables whereas Tobin's Q, Return on Equity (ROE) and Return on assets (ROA) are classified as dependent variables. Additionally, tangibility of assets, growth of assets, company size and age are control variables. The study findings indicate that the market debt ratio (TMLEV) and the debt ratio (TLEV) seem to be significantly positive and have a negative effect on Return on Assets, Return on Equity and Tobin's Q, but the existence of non-linear relationships must be detectable until ROE tests firm financial efficiency and TLEV calculates capital structure. Keywords: Manufacturing firms, FTSE100, corporate performance, Capital Structure, and Financial leverage.
2 Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. 2 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. 5 LIST OF TABLES .3 Research Objectives and Questions.4 The research scale.5 Synopsis of Chapters. CHAPTER 2: MAPPING THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK - LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Capital structure definition .2 Capital structure theories framework.
DATA AND METHODOLOGY. CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS AND FINDING .2 Correlation Coefficient Matrix .3 Pooled OLS regression .4 Random and fixed effect regression. Generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator. Summarize of the finding.
Non-linear relationship between capital structure and performance. CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION, DISCUSSION & LIMITATIONS .1 Conclusion and Discussion. CHAPTER 6: PERSONAL REFLECTION. 79 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CS Capital Structure CP Corporate Performance SIZE Size AGE Business Age TAN Tangibility GRO Growth Sale ROE Return on equity ROA Return on assets MTLEV Market Total leverage TLEV Total Leverage FTSE100 Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index 5 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Control variables’ measurements shown in this research…………36 Table 2.
Description statistics for the 2014-2019 period ……………………42 Table 3: Correlation coefficients of capital structure assessment metrics and corporate performance…………………………………………………………45 Table 4: Pooled regression of OLS - The effect on corporate performance by the capital structure…………………………………………………………….46 Table 5: Regression of RE and FE — Capital structure impacts on corporate performance…………………………………………………………………….50 Table 6: Robust standard error with Fixed effect estimator — the effects of capital structure on corporate performance………………………………….53 Table 7: Capital structure impact on corporate results – two-step GMM estimator system with robust standard error…………………………………55 Table 8: Evaluating non-linear relationships between capital structure and financial performance of businesses ………………………………………….1 Research Context Capital structures have recently been a major emphasis in the financial sector, but their existence and financial relevance have not been thoroughly understood. The definition of the structure of capital is highly significant. The financial framework reflects the corporation's funding mix. It has a significant effect not only on the return of an organization, but also on the sustainability capability in the face of economic shocks, which guarantees its key hand in facilitating the organization fulfill its long-term objectives and goals.
In addition, with dividend policy and acquisition, it is important for any organization in various sectors to take decisions on the capital structure, since they are closely connected with the goal of optimizing the shareholder value and the willingness of the business to remain competitive on the market. Modigliani and Miller (1958), in the light of perfect market conditions, proposed an obsolete hypothesis of the capital system of firm value. In this industry, investors are given equal access to any aspect of financial information and trading costs and taxes for dividends and capital gains are not applicable. The real world’s economy, though, is imperfect.
Consequently, many hypotheses of funding decisions dependent on the realistic scenario have been built from time-to-time to illustrate the function and role of the capital mix in business valuation. A few years later, Modigliani and Miller (1963) amended their previous assertion and clarified, which interest costs became tax deductible, which may maximize the valuation of a business by higher debt ratios. The literature on capital structure has steadily been rounded out over time. Many scholars have identified various variables that influence both financial performance and strategic decisions in finance.
Organization is expected to settle on capital structures between debt and equity 7 instruments, taking into account the varying costs and benefits relating to these instruments. This can cause financial instability and ultimately bankruptcy by making a bad judgment on the proportion of equity and debt (Ahmed Sheikh, 2011). By comparison, the optimum capital structure helps the organization to prevent its financing risks and to effectively boost the firm 's sales. While a broad variety of studies analyze the effects of capital structures on corporate viability (Mendell and Mishra, 2011; Gill and Nahum, 2013; Stierwald, 2010, only a few are able to completely explain their effect on the manufacturing industry's business performance.
Amid diverse and sometimes conflicting findings, these papers draw a clear inference, which is the relationship between the capital structure and the company's performance, however its essence depends on specific circumstances. Manufacturing is a significant sector leading to mature and developing economies' growth. Manufacturing firms typically have a substantial volume of resources and use leverage for their business (Michael and Stevie, 2014). Consequently, they appear to be influenced by inefficient management of capital structures that leads to decreased organizational performance, restricting numerous manufacturing firms in gaining their economic objective.
The study explores the relationship between financial performance and capital structure. This also evaluates the effect of capital structure (leverage) on the financial output of the manufacturers reported on the FTSE100 in the traditionally formed UK. The report utilizes panel data based on 30 listed UK manufacturing firms entities on FTSE100 for the six-year period between 2014 and 2019 as well as utilizes approaches such as models of regression, fixed effects (FE) and random effects (RE) regression, the dynamic panel GMM of estimator system for interpretation of data and testing on the hypothesis. Though the study takes a variety of methods, both conclusions are appropriate.
8 In the study , three evaluation metrics, namely Tobin Q, return on asset, return on equity can be defined as dependent variables, whereas 2 capital structures, including Market Total Debt and Debt ratio, are regarded as independent variables. In addition, the short-term debt and long-term debt ratios are analyzed in order to define the risk-use actions of studied firms. Besides that, the research covers consistent, or in other words, control variables, growth opportunities, tangibility and corporate age and size. This chapter provides a concise overview of research report, covering reasons for study motivations , research questions and suggestions.2 Research Motivation This thesis aims to better understand the relationship between capital structure and business performance.
Previously, no effort has been conducted to examine the effect of capital structure on the results of the manufacturing sector representatives reported in the London Stock Exchange, the best appraisal scheme of 100 qualified UK firms accounted for approximately 81 percent of the overall market capitalization of FTSE100. The research aims to address this literature gap.3 Research Objectives and Questions This study aims to investigate the value of capital structure and its effect on the profitability of 30 listed manufacturing corporations on UK FTSE100. Therefore, the analysis will help business management make better financing decisions and maximize efficiency through capital structure. To fix underlying problems addressed in the rese, the following research questions are asked.
The key question of study is: "How does the capital structure impact FTSE100 components' financial performance?”. To answer this question of study, two sub- questions need to be examined: 9 • What are the key principles about firm’s financial performance and the structure of capital? • How are financial performance and leverage interpreted by a company? 1.4 The research scale. This analysis aims to establish the relationship between the structure of capital and the corporate performance of listed 30 UK manufacturers on FTSE 100 from 2014 to 2019.5 Synopsis of Chapters This paper consists of the following five chapters: Sector 1: Introduction to this article. This chapter outlines the reasons for choosing the research topic, at the same time addressing research questions and research objectives.
It also gives a short introduction to the methods of this study. Section 2: Study of Literature This chapter is divided into two sections: The first section outlines fundamental principles such as capital structure, financial performance of the business and the measurement of these metrics. This is accompanied by a review of previous research related to capital structure in the UK. In addition, this section discusses recent articles to explore the effect of capital structures on the performance of companies.
The author then analyze and classify reviewed researches into particular groups depending on their study emphasis or analytical methodology in order to make it easy for them to read the report. Finally, the chapter discusses several shortcomings in the literature motivated by this analysis. Sector 3: Data and Methodology This chapter explains the data and discusses how they are obtained and the methods utilized to examine the topic's econometrics analysis. Also clarified are the reasons 10 for picking such a data selection and econometric model.
Briefly, in the period 2014-2019, data were obtained from a few reliable sources, including FT.com, Fame or Manufacturing Association in the UK, formally recognized by the United Kingdom General Statistical Office. The key methodology approaches used in this research include regression of fixed effects and random effects, OLS and Correlation analysis. This chapter outlines the research methodology. Next, the data collection 's technique is explored, accompanied by research hypotheses and finally the approaches used to evaluate the topic of econometrics.
In addition, these are the reasons for following such a methodological approach. Section 4: Findings and Analysis This section discusses findings and empirical results regarding the impact of leveraging on corporate performance by following GMM model, robustness monitoring, a random and fixed-effect regression model, and non-linear interaction between the corporate performance and capital structure. In addition , the study findings are presented on the capital structure's impacts on the company's financial performance using the technique. Section 5: Summary and Discussion The last chapter outlines the key findings of the study and presents a review focused on the results of the analysis.
In addition , it gives a conclusion and proposed research limitations.