Abstract
The Relationship between Ownership Structures and Capital Structures of Corporations: An Application on BIST Manufacturing Sector
The aim of this study is to investigate whether there is a relationship between the capital structure (leverage) and the ownership structure (ownership concentration) of companies in Turkey. In the literature, the subject is still under discussion and the findings from the studies reveal contradictory results. Therefore, the findings obtained from our study make important contributions to the discussion in the literature. Financial data of 77 companies included in the BIST Manufacturing Sector are used in the study. In the analysis, ownership structure, growth opportunities, firm size, structure of assets and profitability are used as independent variables while capital structure (leverage) is the dependent variable. As a result of the study, it is found that there is a significant and negative relationship between companies’ ownership structure and capital structure. It means that as the controlling shareholder's share increases, the borrowing rate of the companies decreases. This finding supports the hypothesis that the controlling shareholder will tend to avoid risk as its share increases.
Keywords
Ownership Structure, Capital Structure, Ownership Concentration