Capital Structure Decisions of Globally-Listed Shipping Companies

Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 52, 2013, pp 49-76

Posted: 2 Jul 2012 Last revised: 9 Sep 2013

See all articles by Wolfgang Drobetz

Wolfgang Drobetz

University of Hamburg

Dimitrios Gounopoulos

University of Bath - School of Management

Andreas G. Merikas

University of Piraeus

Henning Schröder

Leuphana University Lüneburg; Hamburg Financial Research Center

Date Written: November 1, 2012

Abstract

Debt capital has traditionally been the most important source of external finance in the maritime industry. The access that shipping companies nowadays have to the international capital markets provides them with a broader range of financing instruments. As such, this study investigates the determinants of capital structure decisions using a sample of 115 exchange-listed shipping companies. We test whether listed shipping companies follow a target capital structure, and we analyze the dynamics of their capital structure adjustment subsequent to shocks in leverage. When compared with industrial firms from the G7 countries, listed shipping companies exhibit higher leverage ratios and higher financial risk. Standard capital structure variables exert a significant impact on the cross-sectional variation of leverage ratios in the shipping industry. Asset tangibility is positively related to corporate leverage, and its economic impact is more pronounced than in other industries. Moreover, profitability, asset risk, and operating leverage are inversely related to leverage. There is only weak evidence for market-timing behavior of shipping companies. Because demand and supply in the maritime industry are closely related to the macroeconomic environment, leverage behaves counter-cyclically. Applying a set of different dynamic panel estimators, we document that the speed of adjustment after leverage shocks is significantly lower during an economic recession. On average, however, the speed of adjustment in the maritime industry is higher compared with the G7 benchmark sample. These findings indicate that there are substantial costs of deviation from the target leverage ratio due to high expected costs of financial distress. Our results also have implications for corporate risk management activities.

Keywords: Maritime financial management, capital structure, speed of adjustment

JEL Classification: G30, G32

Suggested Citation

Drobetz, Wolfgang and Gounopoulos, Dimitrios and Merikas, Andreas G. and Schröder, Henning, Capital Structure Decisions of Globally-Listed Shipping Companies (November 1, 2012). Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 52, 2013, pp 49-76 , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2097428 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2097428

Wolfgang Drobetz (Contact Author)

University of Hamburg ( email )

Moorweidenstrasse 18
Hamburg, 20148
Germany

Dimitrios Gounopoulos

University of Bath - School of Management ( email )

Andreas G. Merikas

University of Piraeus ( email )

Piraeus, LA
Greece

Henning Schröder

Leuphana University Lüneburg ( email )

Lueneburg
Germany

Hamburg Financial Research Center

Hamburg
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.hfrc.org

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