The Determinants of the Capital Structure of Listed Australian Companies: The Financial Manager's Perspective

This paper reports the results of an investigation of financial managers' perceptions of the broad determinants of listed Australian company capital structure decisions. The research method involves a series of field interviews undertaken with the company secretaries and senior financial personnel of 48 listed Australian companies. The results are consistent with Donaldson's previously reported American findings, in that companies appear to follow a pecking order with respect to funding sources and also report policies of maintaining spare debt capacity.