Ownership Structure, Capital Structure and Firm Performance: A Study of Vietnamese Listed Firms Thi Phuong Vy LE A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Business Administration University of Western Sydney 2015 Statement of Authentication The work in the thesis has been prepared by me to partially fulfil the requirements of the Doctor of Business Administration at the University of Western Sydney. I hereby declare that the work is a result of my own research, except where acknowledgement is made. It is an original work and I have not submitted this material, either in whole or in part, for a degree at this or any other institution. Signed: Date: Feb 2015 ii Acknowledgements This thesis would not be finished without the support, assistance and encouragement of many people.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude and appreciation to my principal supervisor, Dr Kathy Tannous, for her invaluable mentorship throughout my dissertation stage. I also would like to thank my co-supervisor, Dr Kyung Hwan Yoon, who has provided valuable comments and advice for my research. The completion of this thesis is because of their kind assistance and contribution. I would like to thank Assoc.
Yi-Chen Lan, Prof. Clive Smallman, Assoc. Anneke Fitzgerald, Prof. Nguyen Dinh Tho and Dr Tran Ha Minh Quan for their guidance and support in my DBA journey.
I would like to acknowledge all the DBA lecturers, Prof. Terry Sloan, Prof. George Lafferty and Prof. Margaret Vickers, for their devotion to teaching the DBA courses.
My thanks also go to the staff in the School of Business, Amanda Reed, Judy Foster, Bec Campisi, Barbara Pinning, and Elite editing company; I will always appreciate their support. Above all, I sincerely thank my family and friends, especially my parents, Le Trong Hoa and Le Thi Van, for their encouragement. My deepest gratitude to my beloved husband, Trinh Minh Viet, for his support and for looking after our baby while I was busy studying. I love you all.
iii Preface Research papers derived from this thesis have been published in a refereed journal and presented at international conferences. Journal Thi Phuong Vy Le 2013, ‘Foreign ownership, capital structure and firm performance: Empirical evidence from Vietnamese listed firms’, IUP Journal of Corporate Governance, vol. Conferences Thi Phuong Vy Le 2014, ‘The impact of ownership structure on capital structure decision: A study of Vietnamese listed firms’, 27th Australian Finance and Banking Conference, Sydney, Australia, December (co-author: Kathy Tannous). Thi Phuong Vy Le 2014, ‘Leverage and investment: A view of prominent role of state ownership’, Vietnam International Conference in Finance, Hanoi, Vietnam, June (co- authors: Thi Phuong Thao Hoang, Duc Nam Phung).
Thi Phuong Vy Le 2013, ‘Capital structure and firm performance: A study of Vietnamese listed firms’, World Business and Social Science Research Conference, Bangkok, Thailand, October (co-author: Kathy Tannous). iv Abstract Although several studies have focused on diverse aspects of ownership and capital structure, some limitations still exist. First, most previous studies have concentrated on the influence of ownership structure on firm performance, but there is a lack of research about its effect on financing decisions. Concretely, while the relationship between ownership structure and capital structure has been established theoretically, only a few empirical studies have examined this linkage, especially in developing countries.
In addition, the studies have often concentrated on managerial ownership, insider ownership, institutional ownership, or ownership concentration. There is limited empirical evidence on the influence of foreign and state ownership on capital structure, although these kinds of ownership have recently become common and important in developing economies because of a sharp increase in foreign investment and the equitisation process. Second, several theories and studies have examined capital structure; however, there is no single theory that can fully interpret the effect of capital structure on firm performance. Specifically, empirical evidence shows different and contradictory results and indicates that this relationship depends significantly on the specific circumstances.
Therefore, the purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of ownership on capital structure and, subsequently, the influence of capital structure on firm performance in Vietnam, which is considered a typical developing country. To achieve this objective, the research used unbalanced panel data from all non-financial listed firms in Vietnam during the period 2007–2012 and employed pooled ordinary least squares, random effects and fixed effects regression methods, and the dynamic panel generalised method of moments for analysing data. Although various approaches were applied, all results were consistent. Specifically, the study found that whereas foreign ownership has a negative effect on leverage, state ownership has a positive influence.
Managerial ownership has a positive relation, but the effect of large ownership on debt level is not conclusive. Additionally, the results revealed that foreign ownership affects inside ownership influence on financing v decisions. In particular, foreign ownership decreases the positive effect of managerial ownership on debt level. The research results also indicate that all ratios of long-term debt, short-term debt and total debt in both book and market value are significantly and negatively related to return on asset, return on equity and Tobin Q.
A non-linear relationship between leverage and firm performance only appears when performance is measured by return on equity and capital structure measured by total debt and short-term debt. These findings imply that firms with different ownership type may not be equal with respect to access to capital sources. State-owned firms could have substantial advantages through access to the debt market because they receive preferential treatment from state- owned banks. Additionally, this research provides evidence of an active monitoring role of foreign investors.
Foreign owners with experience, knowledge and incentives can help firms to reduce agency costs of equity through actively monitoring the management. This research also supports the argument that one of the greatest concerns of managers is to retain or increase their control because it provides them with discretion in making decisions or accessing their private benefits. Moreover, the research findings indicate that in developing countries, an increase in debt can decrease firm performance because of high interest rates, exhausted cash flow or inefficient monitoring of debt. vi Contents Statement of Authentication.
vii List of Figures. x List of Tables. xi List of Abbreviations. xiii Chapter 1: Introduction .1 Research motivations and purpose .3 Overview of research context: Vietnam.2 Vietnamese financial market .3 Vietnamese listed firms .5 Structure of research.
7 Chapter 2: Overview of Research Context .1 Vietnamese economy overall .3 Vietnamese financial market .1 Number and size of banks .1 Size of the bond market .2 Local currency bond market.3 Foreign currency bond market .4 Number of listed firms .5 Some indicators of market .7 Foreign investment in Vietnamese stock market. 27 Chapter 3: Literature Review .2 Ownership structure and capital structure .3 Capital structure and firm performance .4 Capital structure: Previous studies in Vietnam .1 Ownership structure and capital structure .5 Moderating effect of ownership structure .6 Non-linear relationship between ownership structure and capital structure .2 Capital structure and firm performance .1 Measure of firm performance .2 Measure of capital structure .3 Measure of ownership structure .2 State ownership, foreign ownership and large ownership .4 Measure of control variables .1 The capital structure model .2 The firm performance model .2 Descriptive statistics of data.3 Capital structure model: The effect of ownership structure on capital structure .2 Pooled OLS regression.3 Random and fixed effect regression.4 GMM estimator and dynamic capital structure model.7 Moderating effect of the relationship between managerial ownership and capital structure.8 Non-linear relationship between ownership structure and capital structure .4 Firm performance model: The effect of capital structure on firm performance .2 Pooled OLS regression.3 Random and fixed effect regression.7 Non-linear relationship between capital structure and firm performance. 132 Chapter 6: Conclusion and Discussion.1 The effect of ownership structure on capital structure .2 The effect of capital structure and firm performance. 142 ix List of Figures Figure 2.2: Number of equitised SOEs .3: Deposit market share .4: Credit market share.6: Bonds outstanding in major markets (% of GDP) in 2013 .7: Composition of LCY bond market (USD billion) .8: Composition of FCY bond market (USD billion) .9: Market capitalisation of Vietnamese stock market (% GDP).10: Number of listed firms in HOSE and HNX.11: Net inflow portfolio equity of foreign investors (USD million).
26 x List of Tables Table 2.1: Main Vietnamese economic indicators .2: Financial market in Vietnam (% of GDP) .3: Proportion of registered Vietnamese firms by ownership (%) .4: Credit to economy (% of total) .5: Some indicators of Vietnam stock market in 2012 .6: Trading volume of foreign investors.1 Number of observations separated by year, industry and ownership structure .2 Variables used in the measure of firm performance, capital structure and ownership structure .3: Control variables used in this study .4: Tests and models used in this study .1: Descriptive Statistics of capital structure (CS), firm performance (FP) and ownership structure (OS)—Full sample.2: Mean of capital structure (CS), firm performance (FP) and ownership structure (OS) - Separated by industry and year .3: Correlation coefficients between measures of ownership structure and capital structure .4: The effect of ownership on capital structure—Pooled OLS regression .5: The effect of ownership on capital structure—Random effect regression .6: The effect of ownership on capital structure—Fixed effect regression .7: The effect of ownership on capital structure—Fixed effect regression with robust standard error .8: The effect of ownership structure on capital structure – System two-step GMM estimators with robust standard error .9: The effect of ownership structure measured by dummy variables on capital structure .10: The effect of ownership on capital structure measured by market value .11: The effect of ownership on capital structure- Fixed industry .12: The effect of ownership on capital structure- Fixed year .13: The effect of outsider ownership on the relationship between inside ownership and capital structure—Random and fixed effect models .14: Non-linear relationship between ownership structure and capital structure .15: Correlation coefficients between measures of capital structure and firm performance.16: The effect of capital structure on firm performance—Pooled OLS regression .17: The effect of capital structure on firm performance—RE and FE regressions .18: The effect of capital structure on firm performance—Fixed effect estimator with robust standard error .19: The effect of capital structure on firm performance—System two-step GMM estimator with robust standard error .20: The effect of capital structure on firm performance—Fixed industry .21: The effect of capital structure on firm performance—Fixed year .22: The effect of capital structure measured by long-term debt ratios on firm performance.23: The effect of capital structure measured by short-term debt ratios on firm performance .24: Non-linear relationship between capital structure and firm performance.1: Summary of results .