Summary: | The purpose of this study is to examine empirically the relationship between capital
structure and corporate performance of the public listed oil and gas companies in
Malaysia. Various capital structure theories were presented to support the aim of this
study. By using a total of 12 public listed oil and gas companies, the significance of the
proposed relationship was proven through two models with the help of regression
analysis. Capital structure, the independent variable was measured by three ratios
namely short-term to total debt (STDTA), long-term to total debt (LTDTA) and total debt
to total asset (TTOTA). On the other hand, the dependent variable, corporate
performance was measured by return on equity (ROE), return on asset (ROA) and gross
margin (GM). The findings showed that capital structure and ROE had a negative and
significant relationship, indicating that an increase in the debt level of a company will
negatively affect the profitability especially towards shareholders. On the other hand,
capital structure choices in terms of debt level were found to have no significant
relationship with corporate performance measured by ROA and GM. This result was
found to be consistent with similar studies done in Malaysia as well. Subsequently,
limitations of this study and recommendations for future research were discussed.
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