The Impacts of Ownership Structure on Capital Structure and Firm’s Performance in Nigeria

Abstract

This research is aimed at determining the relationship between corporate governance and capital structure while the impact of this relationship on value of the firm using the panel data of selected Nigerian large non financial firms was also investigated. A contrasting relationship was observed between capital structure and the firm’s performance while Nigerian firm’s capital structure was dominated by short term leverage.  Leverage was negatively related to return on assets, number of board meetings and the board size while it was positively related to board composition. It was also observed that firm’s performance was positively related to leverage, number of board meetings and board size while it was negatively related to board composition.

Keywords: Capital structure, Value of the firm, Leverage, Corporate governance.