Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management (ETDs)

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/37778

Browse

Filters

2021 - 20222

Settings

Subject: search.filters.subject.Non-financial firms

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The trajectory and determinants of dividends on the Johannesburg stock exchange
    (2022) Sekgosana, Nomasonto
    This study examines factors affecting the decisions of firms to pay dividends using non-financial firms listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). The study uses 1) descriptive statistics to draw trends from the data, 2) logit regression using firm-specific factors as independent variables and a firm's decision to either pay or not pay dividends, 3) and portfolio analysis to check the robustness of the results. There is confirmation that firm-specific factors and propensity can explain the declining number of dividend-paying firms over the sample period. The South African stock market has seen a significant decline in the number of firms paying dividends from 1994 to 2020. Additionally, the pool of JSE firms declined from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. However, the overall number of firms on the JSE has remained stable since 2004 while that of dividend-paying firms continuously declined throughout the sample period. Thus, the shrunk market of the JSE does not seem to explain the drop in the number of firms paying dividends. In pursuit of specific reasons to explain the declining dividend payment trend, the study proposes five hypotheses based on the evidence from the literature. The first four predictions are based on firm-specific factors (profit, size, free cash flow and investment opportunities), while the last one is based on the propensity of firms to pay dividends over the sample period. All three methods of analysis used show either very strong or some evidence that profitability and size play a significant role in the decision of a firm to pay dividends. Although there is evidence regarding a firm’s investment opportunities, the study shows that this would be subject to a particular time frame and the size of the firm. Additionally, the fifth prediction based on the firms ‘propensity to pay dividends was supported by all three methods of analysis. Therefore, firms, in general, were less inclined to pay dividends over time during the sample period irrespective of firm-specific factors. Furthermore, the study incorporates the contribution of certain major economic and regulatory events in explaining the observed declining number of dividend-paying firms.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Does capital market development influence capital structure choices of firms?
    (2021) Selatitsana, Phatsisi
    This study investigated on the influence of capital market development on capital structure choices of selected non-financial firms in emerging as well as in frontier markets from period 2010 to 2017. To measure capital market development, stock market turnover ratio and ratio of domestic credit to private sector by commercial banks to GDP were used. The study finds that beside firm specific factors and other country-level factors which are used to explain financing choices of firms, capital market development as well affects the financing decisions of listed firms. This study generally, discovers that the development of equity and debt markets are both significant in increasing access to funding by firms and therefore, inform the choice of debt ratios employed by firms both in emerging and frontier markets. The findings of this thesis found that emerging markets enterprises use equity markets as a substitute for debt funding, but the preferable source of finance for firms is long-term debt with the highest positive coefficient. Conversely, in frontier markets, firms are using stock market as a complementary to debt financing, but the most preferred source of financing is short-term debt having highest coefficient