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Effect of Leverage on Performance of Non-financial Firms Listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange

Received: 27 July 2015     Accepted: 6 August 2015     Published: 14 August 2015
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Abstract

Managers strive to maximise shareholder wealth by making rational financing decisions regarding optimal capital structure which would minimise its cost of capital. In attempt to magnify the return to shareholders, managers employ the use of debt. When excessive debt financing is employed by a firm, it increases the cost of financing and the financial risk of the firm leading to decreasing the return on equity as a result of financial distress. Do the various debt equity ratio levels lead to different financial performance when compared for high levered and low levered firm, high growth and low growth firm or large and small firms? A causal research design was used to establish the cause and effect relationship between financial leverage and the financial performance of the firms. The target population was 61listed firms on the Nairobi securities exchange by December 2013.Purposive sampling was used to select 38 non-financial companies. Financial companies were eliminated because the company’s capital structures have specific characteristics affected by industry regulatory requirements. Secondary data was obtained from published financial statements of the sampled companies for the six year period from 2008 to 2013.Ordinary Least Square method was used to establish the cause effect relationship among variables; Hypotheses were tested at 5% significance level using t-statistic. The study found that there was no significant difference in financial performance between highly levered and lowly levered firms and that there existed a negative relationship between Leverage and firm’s performance. There were also no significant differences in financial performance between high growth levered firms and low growth levered firms and that there existed a negative relationship between a firm’s growth opportunity and financial leverage ratio. There was no significant difference in financial performance between large levered firms and small levered firms. The findings of this study may act as a policy guideline to finance managers involved in managing firms on the contribution of financial leverage and its association with return on equity to maximise shareholder wealth

Published in Journal of Finance and Accounting (Volume 3, Issue 5)
DOI 10.11648/j.jfa.20150305.14
Page(s) 132-139
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2015. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Leverage, Performance, Growth Firms, Levered Firms, Large Firms, Liquidity

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Mukaria Henry Kimathi, Mugenda Nebat Galo, Akenga Grace Melissa. (2015). Effect of Leverage on Performance of Non-financial Firms Listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. Journal of Finance and Accounting, 3(5), 132-139. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jfa.20150305.14

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    ACS Style

    Mukaria Henry Kimathi; Mugenda Nebat Galo; Akenga Grace Melissa. Effect of Leverage on Performance of Non-financial Firms Listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. J. Finance Account. 2015, 3(5), 132-139. doi: 10.11648/j.jfa.20150305.14

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    AMA Style

    Mukaria Henry Kimathi, Mugenda Nebat Galo, Akenga Grace Melissa. Effect of Leverage on Performance of Non-financial Firms Listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. J Finance Account. 2015;3(5):132-139. doi: 10.11648/j.jfa.20150305.14

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  • @article{10.11648/j.jfa.20150305.14,
      author = {Mukaria Henry Kimathi and Mugenda Nebat Galo and Akenga Grace Melissa},
      title = {Effect of Leverage on Performance of Non-financial Firms Listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange},
      journal = {Journal of Finance and Accounting},
      volume = {3},
      number = {5},
      pages = {132-139},
      doi = {10.11648/j.jfa.20150305.14},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jfa.20150305.14},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jfa.20150305.14},
      abstract = {Managers strive to maximise shareholder wealth by making rational financing decisions regarding optimal capital structure which would minimise its cost of capital. In attempt to magnify the return to shareholders, managers employ the use of debt. When excessive debt financing is employed by a firm, it increases the cost of financing and the financial risk of the firm leading to decreasing the return on equity as a result of financial distress. Do the various debt equity ratio levels lead to different financial performance when compared for high levered and low levered firm, high growth and low growth firm or large and small firms? A causal research design was used to establish the cause and effect relationship between financial leverage and the financial performance of the firms. The target population was 61listed firms on the Nairobi securities exchange by December 2013.Purposive sampling was used to select 38 non-financial companies. Financial companies were eliminated because the company’s capital structures have specific characteristics affected by industry regulatory requirements. Secondary data was obtained from published financial statements of the sampled companies for the six year period from 2008 to 2013.Ordinary Least Square method was used to establish the cause effect relationship among variables; Hypotheses were tested at 5% significance level using t-statistic. The study found that there was no significant difference in financial performance between highly levered and lowly levered firms and that there existed a negative relationship between Leverage and firm’s performance. There were also no significant differences in financial performance between high growth levered firms and low growth levered firms and that there existed a negative relationship between a firm’s growth opportunity and financial leverage ratio. There was no significant difference in financial performance between large levered firms and small levered firms. The findings of this study may act as a policy guideline to finance managers involved in managing firms on the contribution of financial leverage and its association with return on equity to maximise shareholder wealth},
     year = {2015}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Effect of Leverage on Performance of Non-financial Firms Listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange
    AU  - Mukaria Henry Kimathi
    AU  - Mugenda Nebat Galo
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    Y1  - 2015/08/14
    PY  - 2015
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jfa.20150305.14
    DO  - 10.11648/j.jfa.20150305.14
    T2  - Journal of Finance and Accounting
    JF  - Journal of Finance and Accounting
    JO  - Journal of Finance and Accounting
    SP  - 132
    EP  - 139
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2330-7323
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jfa.20150305.14
    AB  - Managers strive to maximise shareholder wealth by making rational financing decisions regarding optimal capital structure which would minimise its cost of capital. In attempt to magnify the return to shareholders, managers employ the use of debt. When excessive debt financing is employed by a firm, it increases the cost of financing and the financial risk of the firm leading to decreasing the return on equity as a result of financial distress. Do the various debt equity ratio levels lead to different financial performance when compared for high levered and low levered firm, high growth and low growth firm or large and small firms? A causal research design was used to establish the cause and effect relationship between financial leverage and the financial performance of the firms. The target population was 61listed firms on the Nairobi securities exchange by December 2013.Purposive sampling was used to select 38 non-financial companies. Financial companies were eliminated because the company’s capital structures have specific characteristics affected by industry regulatory requirements. Secondary data was obtained from published financial statements of the sampled companies for the six year period from 2008 to 2013.Ordinary Least Square method was used to establish the cause effect relationship among variables; Hypotheses were tested at 5% significance level using t-statistic. The study found that there was no significant difference in financial performance between highly levered and lowly levered firms and that there existed a negative relationship between Leverage and firm’s performance. There were also no significant differences in financial performance between high growth levered firms and low growth levered firms and that there existed a negative relationship between a firm’s growth opportunity and financial leverage ratio. There was no significant difference in financial performance between large levered firms and small levered firms. The findings of this study may act as a policy guideline to finance managers involved in managing firms on the contribution of financial leverage and its association with return on equity to maximise shareholder wealth
    VL  - 3
    IS  - 5
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Faculty of Business Studies, Chuka University, Chuka, Kenya

  • Faculty of Business Studies, Chuka University, Chuka, Kenya

  • Faculty of Business Studies, Chuka University, Chuka, Kenya

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