Determinantes da estrutura de capital: evidências na América Latina

Abstract

The modern theory of capital structure has as its starting point the propositions that suggest that, under some perfect market conditions, the capital structure is irrelevant to the value of the firm. However, under different theoretical propositions, Trade-off, Pecking order, Agency and Market timing, several factors have been proposed as capable of influencing the capital structure of the firm. The study aims to identify the determinants of the capital structure of the Latin American firm, following a large literature that points out the importance of the subject in developing markets. The sample comprises 885 listed firms in the period 1996-2015. Descriptive analyzes and estimated econometric models were performed considering leverage and the stock issue as dependent variables. The results indicate that the ownership concentration does not affect the leverage of these firms. The individual analysis of the ownership concentration of each country signals opposite effects in different markets, indicating the existence of specific institutional aspects that are capable of affecting agency costs related to access to debt. The results point to an adverse effect of the ownership concentration on the stock issue of Latin American firms, which can be explained by a possible fear of loss of control by large shareholders, as well as difficulty in raising funds by stock issue in these companies markets in which minority shareholders are still poorly protected. Profitability had a negative effect on debt and stock issue, an indication that the Latin American firm would be using retained earnings to finance itself, which is in accordance with the Pecking order theory. The size of the firm favors access to debt and the ability to stock issue as expected, possibly due to the company's history and reputation. In addition, the degree of tangibility of the assets also favors the contracting of debt as proposed in the literature. On the other hand, tangibility is unfavorable to the stock issue, signaling that in fact these firms prefer debt to stock issue. Finally, the results indicate that the growth opportunities of these firms are factors that allow both debt issue and stock issue. This result signals that this group of firms is really trying to meet their need for funds to finance their investment projects with debt or stock issue in insufficient cash flow.