Search Results (18)

Cobalt-based metallic glasses have sparked intensive attention because of their extraordinary properties. In this work, a series of Co₆₆Fe₄Mo_2-xTa_xSi₁₆B₁₂ (x = 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0) metallic glass ribbons were systematically designed to investigate the influence of the minor Ta substitution for Mo on the thermal behavior and magnetic performance. The results reveal that the width of the supercooled liquid region initially increases with Ta content, reaching 98 K at x = 1.0, and subsequently decreases with further Ta addition. It indicates that the Co₆₆Fe₄Mo_1.0Ta_1.0Si₁₆B₁₂ alloy has the optimal glass-forming ability. Moreover, the crystallization onset temperature and crystallization peak temperature of all as-quenched ribbons were improved with the Ta content x increasing to 2.0, which is due to the higher melting temperature of the element Ta (3290 K). In addition, these ribbons exhibit outstanding soft magnetic properties, including ultralow coercivity (H_c < 1.1 A/m) and moderate saturation magnetization, which indicates that these ribbons are suitable for magnetic shielding. These results offer valuable insights into the design of soft magnetic metallic glass. Full article

This study investigates the effect of digital transformation on non-financial firms’ adjustment of the capital structure in European countries while controlling for firm characteristics (firm size, tangibility, profitability, and non-debt tax shields), board characteristics (board size, board gender diversity, and board meetings), and macroeconomic variables (GDP and inflation). Data were collated from the platform Refinitiv Eikon (LSEG). The final sample size was 514 companies during the 2010–2023 period. Panel GMM regression was used to thoroughly investigate the impact of digital transformation on the adjustment of capital structure. The results show that digital transformation improves capital structure adjustments. Based on the results of panel GMM regression, our results hold and confirm that there is a positive significant impact of digital transformation on the adjustment of capital structure. The main recommendation for businesses and policy makers is to successfully enter the digital age. Full article

The goal of this research is to investigate whether taxation affects the leverage decisions of banks and if the response of leverage to tax increases depends on profit-shifting opportunities available to individual banks. This topic remains controversial since it is often believed that banking regulation is such an essential driver of leverage choices that little room is left for other considerations studied in the corporate finance literature. Using a difference-in-differences setup encompassing the period from 2006 to 2017, we exploit two exogenous income tax rate increases applicable to 225 Brazilian banks, employing novel identification strategies based on the intricacies of local taxation rules and on the distinctions between individual banks and financial conglomerates. We find stark differences in the behavior of banks around the two events, with a substantial increase in leverage following the first tax hike but no leverage response following the second. In addition, we find no evidence of heterogeneous effects based on the amount of profit-shifting opportunities available to individual banks. Regulatory concerns possibly became more relevant for leverage decisions during the period around the second tax hike because it coincided with the implementation of stricter capital requirements associated with the Basel III framework. Taken together, our results suggest that financial institutions balance considerations regarding the tax-shield benefits of debt against regulatory concerns specific to the banking industry when making capital structure choices. Full article

This paper examines the relationship between firm-specific factors and the capital structure of the oil and gas (O&G) industry in Malaysia.. In addition, this paper adds to the literature by investigating the moderating effect of earnings volatility on the relationship between firm-specific factors and capital structure. Random effect models with cluster-robust standard errors were used to analyze this relationship. Using the secondary data from 30 O&G firms listed on the main market of Bursa Malaysia collected between 2010 and 2019 (10 years), the results show that profitability, asset tangibility, liquidity, and firm size significantly impact the capital structure of the O&G industry in Malaysia. However, growth opportunities, non-debt tax shields, and firm age had no significant impact. In addition to this, earnings volatility significantly moderated the relationship between asset tangibility and leverage. In short, when earnings volatility acts as a moderating variable, the relationship between asset tangibility, which is otherwise positive without moderation, turns negative. This study is useful for policymakers in the O&G industry in Malaysia and will help their managers to decide on capital structure for sustainable growth. Full article

The standard formulas for calculating the value of a firm’s tax shield and its weighted average cost of capital (WACC) use the assumption that the underlying cash flows are perpetuities. Yet, most projects will have a finite useful life. Because the perpetuity approach will overstate the value of a finite-life project’s tax shield, this factor will pressure the perpetuity-formula WACC to be less than the finite-life WACC. However, a large portion of the value of a perpetual tax shield can be attributed to interest payments during the next 5, 10, or 25 years, making it possible for the perpetuity-formula WACC to be greater than the finite-life WACC. Using a series of numerical examples, this paper shows that the finite-life WACC can be either higher or lower than the perpetuity-formula WACC depending on the project’s useful life, the required return on the unlevered project, the firm’s capital structure, the cost of debt, the marginal tax rate, and the debt repayment pattern (e.g., coupon bonds or amortizing loans). The analysis in this article helps managers better understand the potential biases introduced into the capital budgeting process when using the perpetuity-formula WACC to evaluate projects with finite useful lives. Full article

The main aim of the paper is to examine the interdependence of corporate financing structure on selected determinants in the energy and mining sectors of the economy. In addition, a comparison of the results between these economic sectors is made. In order to increase the representativeness of the sample, countries from both the “old” European Union (Germany, France, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, and Sweden) and newly admitted countries (Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Bulgaria) were included in the study. The research used data from the Orbis database for 2012–2020. A one-factor linear panel model was used to verify the hypotheses. The research partly confirmed the hypotheses. A negative relationship between the financing structure and profitability in both analysed sections was clearly established. The second determinant whose influence on the financing structure in both sections was found to be unambiguous was the ratio of current liabilities to current assets. However, this influence was positive. Another determinant whose influence on the financing structure was confirmed to be unequivocal and positive in nature was the size of the company. This occurred only in the energy sector. The research revealed that other determinants, such as asset structure, interest, and noninterest tax shields, also affect the financing structure of companies, but the statistical significance of these relationships is ambiguous. Full article

A crucial role belongs to export firms in the export-led growth model of Vietnam. The COVID-19 disease has posed a serious challenge to the Vietnamese economy, having negatively impacted its influential export sector. However, investigating this export sector encounters small sample issues within the frequentist framework. So, by adopting a Bayesian approach, this study intends to explore the impact of COVID-19-specific factors on the financial distress of the export companies listed on the Vietnam stock exchange. In case frequentist and Bayesian estimation with non-informative priors cannot acquire statistical efficiency due to problems with insufficient data, thoughtful Bayesian analysis can yield meaningful outcomes. A Bayesian logistic regression model was employed to analyze the scarce data, and the posterior estimates of all the model parameters achieved significantly show that the main operating cash flow ratio to total debt, company size, and retained return on total assets are all negatively related to financial distress. Interestingly, financial leverage positively affects financial distress because a benefit from a tax shield could not compensate for the adverse impact of a debt burden, as suggested in the trade-off theory, which demonstrates the specific financial situation of the companies when the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing. Full article

We extend the performance comparison study of nonprofits (NPs) and pass-throughs by examining large NPs and large C corporations (CCs). Unlike that study, we also examine performance outcomes under two different tax shield policies. We use the Capital Structure Model as our main methodology. Our purpose is to compare large NPs with large CCs in terms of debt choice, valuation, leverage gain, and growth-related outcomes. All tests considered, NPs (compared to CCs) have a 34.90% valuation advantage; achieve a 78.12% greater increase in value when going from nongrowth to growth (using a 12.34% lower plowback ratio and 10.97% less in retained earnings); attain a 2.56% greater optimal leverage ratio; and, realize 10.97% less in dollars added from debt. We show that switching from an interest tax shield to a retained earnings tax shield increases CC value between 1.35% and 3.28%. The NP value limit is only 0.42% since NPs pay little taxes. Our findings are value-additive for the comparative ownership form research. Full article

Recent economic anomalies, including the unprecedented lockdown generated by the COVID-19 crisis, have demonstrated that the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) remains an actual topic in the financial literature and in practice. Companies operate in an increasingly volatile environment, due to twin transitions and interlinked crises, and so they must have specific tools for measuring risk and profitability, in order to enable them to have a sound financial policy. Based on the earlier results obtained by Modigliani and Miller (1963), Harris and Pringle (1985), and Farber, Gillet, and Szafarz (2006), this study shows the relationship between WACC and interest rate. It offers a modified WACC formula that considers unstable market circumstances. The new redefined WACC can be a valuable tool in business planning for companies from different fields. The companies in the energy sector are very interested in the topic of WACC, considering not only the complex nature of the investments made and the long-term nature of investment recovery but also the multiple risks that have an impact on their activity and that can be found in different economic, social, and geopolitical spheres. Full article

Corporate social responsibility (CSR), ethics, and sustainability have become an inseparable part of the discourse of modern business. Applying linear regression and comparison of intervals of beta-coefficients, we focused on the mediating role of CSR in the relations between capital structure and its determinants. Examining the sample of European large caps, we observed that CSR companies are significantly more leveraged than non-CSR ones. The influence of the corporate income tax rate and depreciation and amortization on leverage does not differ significantly between CSR and non-CSR companies. Moreover, tax shields seem to be insignificant for both CSR and non-CSR companies. However, we should stress that, for depreciation and amortization, the beta coefficient has a different significance in the model of CSR companies, compared to the model of non-CSR companies. Also, the difference between the models regarding the relations of leverage and asset tangibility is worth noting. Non-CSR companies with a higher proportion of fixed assets have lower leverage. This result was not confirmed for CSR companies. The hypothesis that CSR replaces the role of collateral cannot be confirmed. Available cash influences leverage negatively in both models, supporting the pecking-order theory. This result is much stronger for non-CSR companies compared to CSR ones. This study found fewer statistically significant differences between CSR and non-CSR companies regarding capital structure determinants than were expected. Full article

The modern capital cost and capital structure theory—the Brusov–Filatova–Orekhova (BFO) theory and its perpetuity limit, the Modigliani–Miller theory—describe the case of the payments of income tax at the end of the year. However, in practice, companies could make these payments in advance. Recently, the Modigliani–Miller theory has been modified for the case of advanced payments of income tax and has shown that the obtained results are quite different from ones in the “classical” Modigliani–Miller theory. In the current paper, for the first time, we modify the Brusov–Filatova–Orekhova (BFO) theory for the case of advanced payments of income tax and show that the impact of the transition to advance payments is much more significant than in the case of a perpetuity limit (the MM theory) and even leads to a qualitatively new effect in the dependence of equity cost on leverage. An important conclusion drawn in this paper is that the tax shield is very important, and the way it is formed (payments at the end of the year or in advance) leads to very important consequences, changing all the financial indicators of the company, such as the cost of raising capital and company value and radically changing the company’s dividend policy. Full article

This paper aims to examine whether effective tax rate and firm-specific factors (such as firm size, growth opportunities, tangibility, risk, profitability, non-debt tax shields and liquidity) impact the capital structure of multinational firms in the energy sector. We employ regression models consisting of OLS, fixed effect and random effect to test balanced panel dataset of multinational firms based in the UK and USA over the period 2011–2019. We show a positive and significant effect of tangibility, risk, profitability and non-debt tax shields on long-term and total debt measures of capital structure. In the case of short-term debt, however, we reveal that it is significantly negatively related to tangibility, non-debt tax shields and liquidity, and positively associated with firm risk. Moreover, we report that the effective tax rate and firm size are insignificantly negatively related to the leverage choices of multinational firms, and liquidity has a significant inverse relationship with long-term debt and total debt. This study reveals mixed support for the prevailing capital structure theories and evidence that multinational firms are unequivocally responsive to the capital structure. The results significantly contribute to evaluating multinational firms in the energy sector and show how managers can achieve an optimal level of capital structure. Full article

The aim of the study is to identify the main determinants of the capital structure of energy industry companies in the European Union. The study was based on a panel of 6122 companies from 25 EU countries, operating between 2011 and 2018. The study used multiple regression analysis. We have obtained strong evidence for a positive relationship between corporate debt and tangibility and size, and a negative relationship for profitability and liquidity. The factors that also affect the share of debt in capital have turned out to be growth (positive relationship) and non-debt tax shield (negative relationship), but the statistical significance of these relationships is ambiguous. We have shown that growth of industry business risk is accompanied by an increase in corporate debt and this is a distinguishing feature of the energy industry. For country-specific capital structure determinants, we have obtained strong evidence for the negative relationship between GDP growth, the level of stakeholder rights protection, the degree of capital markets development, and indebtedness of the companies studied. There has been moderate support for the hypotheses of a positive effect of inflation, taxation, and the degree of financial institutions development. Our study has also shown a negative impact of the volume of energy consumption and the share of renewable sources in its production and a positive impact of market monopolization on the indebtedness of companies from the energy industry in the EU. Full article

Financial derivatives have been increasingly used by firms to hedge against financial risks. However, it is still not clear what factors at the firm level lead to firms’ derivative use and whether derivative use can generate performance improvement, especially in the context of firms operating in emerging economies. Using the unbalanced panel data consisting of 2529 listed firms from China covering an 11-year period from 2005 to 2015, this study examines these two questions regarding firms’ use of financial derivatives. Based on results from the empirical analysis, this study identified operational cash flow, tax shield, R&D investment, and the possibility of bankruptcy, as the firm-level factors that enable firms’ decision to invest in financial derivatives. More importantly, empirical findings from this study suggest that a firm’s derivative use tends to negatively affect firm performance, rather than improve firm performance. The negative effect of derivative use on firm performance is not consistent between the two groups of the better performer and poorer performer firms. While the poorly performed firms are more likely to use financial derivatives for the purpose of performance improvement, their derivative use tends to further damage, rather than improve, performance. These research findings have theoretical and practical implications. Full article

The main aim of this paper was to investigate the impact of bank characteristics on capital structure empirically. The study employed a panel data analysis, Pooled Mean Group (PMG) and Cross-Sectionally Augmented Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) estimators were utilized, for the period spans between the years 2008 and 2018. Both the borrowing (leverage) ratio and equity ratio used in the analysis cover short-term deposits and long-term deposits as a fundamental determinant variable on the capital structure. The main findings confirm that the deposit ratio has a positive relationship with the size of the bank. In other words, big banks use more foreign sources than small banks to use the tax shield advantage. At the same time, a percentage increase in bank size and liquidity ratio enhance the bank deposit rate by 0.0068% and 0.479%, respectively, in the long-run, while a percentage change in interest income coverage will reduce the bank deposit rate by 0.004% in the long-run. Meanwhile, the significant causal relationship of growth rate with the bank deposit rate could not be established. In addition, the short-run coefficients of the variables reveal that size, interest coverage, and liquidity have a positive and significant causal relationship with bank deposit rate in the short-run. The findings of the study are in line with the results of capital structure theories, especially the hierarchy theory and balancing theory. Full article