Influence of Capital structure on Firm Performance: Empirical Evidence from Indian Manufacturing Industry

Abstract

The study is an attempt to examine empirically the impact of capital structure on firm performance using a data sample of 56 Indian manufacturing firms listed on Bombay Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange or both during 2010-2022. The study uses three financial performance measures namely return on assets, return on capital employed and earnings per share as dependent variables. The eight capital structure measures such as long-term debt, short-term debt, interest coverage ratio, current ratio, growth, tangibility, non debt tax shield and size are used as independent variables. The data are divided into three sectors including steel, cement and automobile. The correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis are used in the study to estimate the impact of capital structure on firm performance. The empirical result shows that firm performance has a negative relationship with short and long term debt in most of the studied sectors. In the automotive sector, long-term debt is positively related to return on capital employed. Liquidity is negatively related to firm performance in the cement and automotive industries. Non-debt tax shield is positively related to firm performance as measured by return on capital employed and earnings per share in the cement and automotive industries, respectively, while interest coverage ratio is positively correlated with firm performance in the cement industry.