Capital Structure and Firm Characteristics: Some Evidence from Malaysian Companies

This study tests the determinants of capital structure for the firms listed in the Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad (BMSB) market during the six year period from 1999 through 2005. The financial statements of 17 companies with numbers of observations totaling 102 are used. We use dependent variable of debt ratio and is expressed by total debt divided by total assets while the independent variables are size, growth, liquidity and interest coverage ratio. Applying pooled OLS estimations, the result shows that the size, liquidity and interest coverage ratio is significantly negatively related to total debt. However, the study finds insignificant negative relation between capital structure and growth of the firm, expressed by the annual changes of earnings. The results also reveal that there is significant different in capital structure among firms that adopt more debt (more than 30 per cent of their total assets) and those which employ less leverage financing.