Capital structure formation in multinational and local companies in the Baltic States

Abstract

This paper investigates whether there are systematic differences in the capital structure formation of local companies and subsidiaries of multinational companies (MNCs) operating in the Baltic States over the period from 2000 to 2008. The analysis is based on panel data estimation on a sample covering 87,000 company-year observations. We find local companies to be more leveraged than MNCs, mainly explained by use of intra group equity financing, lower investment intensity and higher profit retention of the latter. However, MNCs appear to have had better access to external finance, resulting in their competitive advantage over local companies, especially in periods characterised by significant credit constraints. In contrast, local companies appear to have started to increase their leverage under relaxed credit constraints during the years of economic boom, demonstrating local companies' greater vulnerability to adverse cyclical effects. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Headnote

Abstract

This paper investigates whether there are systematic differences in the capital structure formation of local companies and subsidiaries of multinational companies (MNCs) operating in the Baltic States over the period from 2000 to 2008. The analysis is based on panel data estimation on a sample covering 87,000 company-year observations. We find local companies to be more leveraged than MNCs, mainly explained by use of intra group equity financing, lower investment intensity and higher profit retention of the latter. However, MNCs appear to have had better access to external finance, resulting in their competitive advantage over local companies, especially in periods characterised by significant credit constraints. In contrast, local companies appear to have started to increase their leverage under relaxed credit constraints during the years of economic boom, demonstrating local companies' greater vulnerability to adverse cyclical effects.

JEL classification: G32, F23

Keywords: capital structure, multinational companies, local companies, Baltic States

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)

1. Introduction

Multinational corpo rations (MNCs) play a considerable role in the economic development of many emerging markets, including the Baltic States. Financing decisions of the subsidiaries of MNCs may be affected by forces different from those that shape the capital structure of local companies. Among the underlying reasons may be group level financial considerations, corporate governance issues, cross-countiy differences in taxation, regulations and overall economic climate as well as differences in access to finance. In this paper we seek to identify the key differences between the capital structures of local companies and MNC subsidiaries operating in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and search for the main drivers of these differences. Since some authors (Desai et al. 2004, Aggarwal and Kyaw 2008) have suggested that capital structure effects could serve as a competitive advantage for MNCs compared to their local counterparts, it is important to investigate the existence and sources of any such advantages in the context of emerging economies such as the three Baltic States. Furthermore, the structure of capital has been found to be an important determinant of company viability, including in studies that cover the Baltic States (Männasoo 2008, Hazak and Männasoo 2010), which makes it interesting to study how the above leverage effects behave under different phases of the economic cycle.

A large body of empirical works (Lee and Kwok 1988, Burgman 1996, Chen et al. 1997, Singh and Nejadmalayeri 2004, Mittoo and Zhang 2008, among others) have explored the reasons for the differences between the capital structure of multinational corporations (meaning companies with international operations) and local companies (meaning companies with only domestic operations) which are registered in the same country (home country). We aim to compare capital structure differences between local companies and the subsidiaries of multinational companies that operate in the same country (host countiy). The only paper with a similar host country focus seems to be the one by Jog and Tang (2001), which compares the capital structures of local corporations in Canada to those of subsidiaries of US corporations with the purpose of determining the effects of differences in taxation between the two countries.

We use a fixed effects regression model to investigate the capital structure effects of the key company specific variables that have been brought out in previous literature as potential determinants of capital structures of companies. Our study is unique as it is based on a large sample covering 87,000 company -year observations from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania over the period from 2000 to 2008, thus covering different phases of the economic cycle. We have divided the sample into two subsets - multinational and non-multinational companies. If more than 50% of a company is directly owned by a foreign company, it is classified as a multinational company and otherwise as a non-multinational (i.e. local) company. The terms "local company" and "non-multinational company" are used interchangeably in this paper. Our model enables observation of differences in the determinants of leverage of local and multinational companies in a dynamic perspective.

The paper is set up as follows. Section 2 gives an overview of related literature. In section 3 the data and methodology for the study is presented and in Section 4 the results are discussed. Section 5 concludes.

2. Literature overview

Modern literature on company financing decisions starts with the capital structure irrelevance proposition by Modigliani and Miller (1958), followed by their later paper outlining the debt tax shield concept (Modigliani and Miller 1963). Although these theories are not able to capture the real life behaviour of companies, they have been a starting point for many later works that explain the various imperfections that make decisions regarding capital structure relevant. The traditional trade-off theory, which focuses on the benefits and costs of issuing debt, suggests that an optimal debt ratio is reached when the marginal benefits of debt (tax shield) offset the increase in the present value of the costs of debt (i.e. mainly bankruptcy costs) (Kraus and Litzenberger, 1973). The agency theory of capital structure by Jensen and Meckling (1976) focuses on the influence of conflicts of interest between managers, owners and debt-holders on financing decisions. Pecking order theory introduced by Myers (1984) and Myers and Majluf (1 984) is based on the informational imperfections that have an impact on the choice between debt and equity as well as between internal and external sources of funding. Signalling theory of capital structure developed by Ross (1977) also deals with the impact of asymmetric information on financing decisions.

The majority of empirical studies on capital structure seek to understand the impact of various determinants of financing decisions or aim to test the applicability of certain theories of capital structure. Empirical research on factors influencing the level of leverage covers overall three main areas - company specific, business environmental, and ownership factors. For a detailed review of the empirical research of various factors determining capital structure, see Prasad et al. (2001). Reviewing previous studies on capital structures, they find that company level characteristics that are most often considered to determine capital structure are tangibility, size, profitability, growth, company risk, non-debt tax shields, and industry.

A few empirical studies deal with determinants of capital structure in the Baltic States. In their analysis of the target capital structure of large firms in transition countries, including Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Haas and Peeters (2004) find profitability and age to be the most robust determinants of capital structures. They find a significant negative relationship between profitability and leverage, and a significant and positive relationship between age and leverage. In his analysis of capital structure formation in five CEE countries, including Estonia, Nivorozhkin (2005) finds a negative relationship between profitability and leverage, as well as between age and leverage, and a positive relationship between earnings variability and tangibility and leverage. Jöeveer (2006) analyses determinants of capital structure in nine CEE countries including Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. She concludes that company specific factors mostly influence the leverage of listed and large unlisted companies, while countiy specific factors are the most prominent determinants of leverage variation for small companies.

The modern theory of foreign direct investment is based on the conviction that MNCs have emerged due to market imperfections (Hymer 1976). In order to compete with local firms, foreign enterprises would need to have some advantages that compensate them for the disadvantage of operating in a foreign enviromnent. In addition, some market imperfections must limit local firms' access to advantages available to foreign enterprises (Blomström 2002). Blomström summarised the theory on arguments for investing abroad and concluded that in order to compete successfully in a foreign market a firm must possess some ownershipspecific assets in knowledge, technology, organisation or managerial and marketing skills. We believe that these features are likely to have an impact on the financing choices of MNCs compared to local companies.

The agency theoiy may have different implications for MNCs and local companies. For example, monitoring costs of debt (brought out by Jensen and Meckling 1976) may be higher due to the complexity of international operations and geographical distances. Leverage is therefore expected to be lower for MNCs compared to companies having only domestic operations, and this relationship has found empirical support (Lee and Kwok 1988, Burgman 1996, Chen et al. 1997, Doukas and Panzalis 2003).

Desai et al. (2004) draw attention to the opportunity of multinationals to use internal capital markets to overcome any shortcomings associated with external credit market conditions. Subsidiaries of MNCs might substitute parent debt for external debt in countries where creditor rights are weak, and choose intra-group debt where locally provided debt is scarce or expensive, while local firms must rely primarily on local sources of debt. The same has been described by Aggarwal and Kyaw (2008) who find that this type of financial flexibility is likely to be an important source of competitive advantage for MNCs. Doukas and Panzalis (2003) express a contrasting view predicting that due to lower informational asymmetries and agency costs internal equity is easier to obtain compared to external equity and therefore MNCs' lower leverage should reflect the strengths of internal capital markets.

MNCs are thought to have lower business risks compared to non-multinationals due to broader diversification of their operations. As riskier companies have a higher probability of default, international diversification may enhance their debt carrying capacity (Lee and Kwok 1988, Doukas and Panzalis 2003). However, the empirical results regarding the lower level of business risks of MNCs remain inconclusive (see Lee et al. 2006 for literature review).

One of the imperfections characterising the operating environment of MNCs is taxation. In their theoretical models of capital structure choice of multinational companies, Chowdhiy and Nanda (1994) and Chowdhiy and Covai (1998) focused on the influence of host country and home countiy taxes on the use of debt by MNCs. Chowdhiy and Nanda (1994) show that for any given level of total debt financing, higher corporate tax rates in the host countiy are associated with a larger proportion of external debt compared to intra-group debt. Chowdhiy and Covai (1998) demonstrate that MNCs' debt-assets ratio is positively related to the tax rate of the host countiy and negatively related to the tax rate of the parent countiy. In their empirical analysis of capital structure of MNCs in Europe, Huizinga et al. (2008) view taxation as one of the central factors determining the capital structure choice of MNCs along with company specific variables such as size, tangibility and profitability. They find both host countiy tax rates and tax differences between host countiy and home countiy to have a positive influence on the leverage of MNCs.

Singh and Hodder (2000) bring out the ability of multinational firms to shift income and tax deductions across subsidiaries in different tax jurisdictions. Such financial flexibility is not available for single countiy firms and it represents a distinctive characteristic and potential advantage of multinationality. With higher leverage, the role of financial flexibility changes from being an alternative to being a complement to leverage. Namely, it complements leverage by reducing the risks of default and lost tax shields. Singh and Hodder (2000) find that financial flexibility is a key determinant of optimal capital structure for a multinational firm. MNCs derive a synergistic effect from financial flexibility, which can enhance their value beyond that for a single countiy firm from a low tax jurisdiction. Unfortunately, as Singh and Hodder (2000) admit, the implications of financial flexibility are difficult to test, since this would require detailed data on costs for transferring income and tax shields across subsidiaries.

Various country specific factors are brought out in the literature as relevant to MNC capital structure decisions. Among these are protection of creditor rights, efficacy of legal institutions, capital market development, and political risk (Burgman 1996, Desai et al. 2004, Kesternich and Schneitzer 2007, Aggarwal and Kyaw 2008). Although these factors are not the main interest of the current research, where capital structures of local companies and MNCs operating in the same environment are compared, they may help to explain the impact of some company-specific variables.

3. Model and data

3.1 The model

We aim to investigate whether systematic differences exist in the capital structure formation of local and multinational companies operating in the Baltic States. We use a fixed effects regression model to study the determinants of leverage. The model is built on the classical model of Rajan and Zingales (1995) and is complemented with additional independent variables derived from the findings of previous research.

We first run the regression for the whole sample (Model 1), seeking to identify key capital structure determinants in the Baltic States over the period from 2000 to 2008. We model the leverage of an z-th company at time t as follows:

... (1)

where a. denotes firm-level fixed effects. The variables are described in Table 1 and explained in the text below.

A fixed effects model has been used since it helps to control for unobserved heterogeneity between firms that is constant over time and correlated with independent variables. A random effects model would have ignored such firm-level heterogeneity, leading to an inconsistent estimation. Moreover, the assumption of zero correlation between latent heterogeneity and included observed characteristics that is necessary under the random effects model would have been particularly restrictive. This is confirmed by the Hausman test, which strongly suggests that a fixed effects model should be preferred over the random effects model. Robust standard errors have been employed, which control for bias in the presence of heteroskedasticity and for the within-cluster serial correlation. An unbiased fixed effects estimator requires a strict exogeneity on the explanatory variables. The Davidson-MacKinnon test controls for exogeneity of a panel regression estimated via instrumental variables. The null hypothesis states that estimates are consistent and the exogeneity assumption of explanatory variables is met. Applying the Davidson-MacKinnon test on our equations showed that the null hypothesis was not rejected and hence the alternative hypothesis that endogenous regressors' effects on the estimates are meaningful was not supported.

In order to identify the differences between multinational and local companies in the impact that the various determinants have on their leverage, in Model 2 (including the entire sample) and Model 3 (only companies with leverage above zero included), we have employed interaction terms between independent variables and the dummy variable for multinational companies.

... (2)

Two alternative measures of leverage (LEVERAGE) are used as dependent variables in our study. First, we have used an adjusted measure of leverage (LEVERAGE A), calculated similarly to several studies on capital structure (Rajan and Zingales 1995, Jog and Tang 2001, Huizinga et al. 2008). This measure takes into account that some assets on balance sheet are offset by specific non-debt liabilities. Second, to consider the specifics of long-term financing compared to short term financing, we have employed long-term leverage (LEVERAGE B) as an alternative to adjusted leverage. While long-term investments are generally financed from long-term financial resources, long-term debt could be more difficult to obtain compared to short-term debt. We have used the same denominator for long-term leverage as for adjusted leverage due to the above mentioned advantages of that measurement.

As discussed in Section 2, internal capital markets are regarded as an important factor of capital structure of multinational companies. Therefore, an alternative measure of leverage, indicating the proportion of intra-group debt, would have contributed to the analysis. Unfortunately, information regarding intra-group debt is not available for the data set used.

It has to be noted that due to limitations on data availability all the leverage ratios are calculated based on book values instead of market values. However, as Titman and Wessels (1988) argue, the implications of using book values should not be critical since the difference between book and market values is not likely to be correlated with any of the determinants of capital structure suggested by theoiy.

Company age is one of the most common determinants used in capital structure research. Contrasting views exist on the influence of company age on capital structure. Pecking order theoiy explains that the longer a company survives in the business, the more internally generated profits it has accumulated, and therefore the need for debt decreases over time. Several empirical studies confirm the negative relationship between company age and leverage (Petersen and Rajan 1994, Pfaffermayr et al. 2008). On the other hand, Akhtar and Olivier (2009) and Haas and Peeters (2004) believe that the growing age of a firm might refer to lower informational asymmetries. As firms grow older, more information regarding their performance becomes available. In turn, lower information asymmetries imply higher leverage. The empirical results of Akhtar and Olivier (2009) on the capital structure of Japanese corporations indicate a significant positive correlation between leverage and age. Haas and Peeters (2004) show the same results for large companies in CEE transition economies. Based on the outcome of descriptive statistics (Figure 1), we have included the squared term of age in addition to the linear term (AGE).

Tangible assets can serve as debt collateral, diminishing the risk of lenders who suffer from the agency costs of debt, such as risk shifting. Furthermore, the more tangible assets a company has, the higher amount could be expected to be recovered under potential bankruptcy or liquidation. Therefore, the greater the proportion of tangible assets in total assets, the more willing lenders should be to supply loans, leading to higher leverage (Rajan and Zingales 1995). Empirical evidence supports the idea that firms rich in tangible fixed assets use more debt (Rajan and Zingales 1995, Deesomsak et al. 2004, Gaud et al. 2007, Jong et al. 2008). Based on theoretical argumentation and previous empirical evidence, we expect tangibility (TANG) to have a positive impact on leverage. The impact of tangibility is expected to be stronger for non-multinational companies, since being part of a larger group should reduce the role of tangible assets as collateral in the lending process for MNCs. Tangibility has been measured by tangible fixed assets divided by total fixed assets, similarly to Akhtar and Oliver (2009).

Profitability is another common variable used as a determinant of leverage. Conflicting theoretical predictions exist on the effects of profitability on leverage. Pecking order theory predicts a negative relationship since firms prefer internal funds to external ones. Several previous studies have found that profitable firms tend to use less debt than less profitable ones (Barton and Gordon 1988, Rajan and Zingales 1995, Booth et al. 2001, Nivorozhkin 2005), mainly explained by own funds being utilised first hand to cover financing needs. On the other hand, signalling theory predicts profitability and leverage to be positively related - adding debt to the capital structure can serve as a signal of credibility, as the more profitable a firm is the more debt it might be able to afford. In the present paper, a negative relationship is expected as in most previous empirical research, and this relationship is expected to be more evident in the case of non-multinational companies, since they might have fewer alternative sources for financing their growth. Profitability has been measured in previous studies either by EBIT (Titman and Wessels 1988), EBITDA (Huizinga et al. 2008), return on assets (Chen et al. 1997) or cash flow (Rajan and Zingales 1995).

In the present study profitability (PROF) is measured by EBIT, i.e. operating profit to sales. Data on cash flows or EBITDA was not available for our data set and operating profit is preferred to net profit since it is a pre-leverage profitability indicator, excluding financing costs and tax expenses. In order to avoid correlation with other variables that reflect the size of assets, sales rather than assets have been used in the denominator.

Empirical evidence shows that larger firms tend to borrow more than smaller ones (Rajan and Zingales 1995; Booth et al. 2001, Frank and Goyal 2009). This positive relationship between size and leverage is assumed to occur due to the likelihood that larger firms have better access to debt capital than smaller firms, and because potential bankruptcy costs are relatively lower for larger firms. In their paper on capital structure of transition economies, Haas and Peeters (2004) explain that in the context of the relatively underdeveloped stock and bond markets in CEE countries, capital structures are influenced by informational asymmetries - large and transparent companies are able to get bank credit more easily, while smaller companies have to rely more on internal financing. Nivorozhkin (2005) offers an additional explanation that banks in transition economies prefer to deal with larger clients due to the fixed costs of monitoring and collecting information. Similarly to previous research, the size variable is expected to have a positive influence on leverage in our study. The effect is expected to be stronger in the case of non-multinationals, since MNCs can be expected to achieve transparency more easily, benefiting from the reputation of the parent company and the group. In previous research, size has been proxied by the logarithm of sales (Rajan and Zingales 1995, Huizinga et al. 2008) or the logarithm of total assets (Chkir and Cosset 2001, Haas and Peeters 2004, Nivorozkin 2005). In the present study, the logarithm of sales in real terms has been used as the size variable (SIZE) in order to avoid correlation with other variables that reflect the size of assets.

Several authors have paid attention to the role of credit conditions in formation of capital structure. Factors such as creditor rights (Aggarwal and Kyaw 2008, Huizinga et al. 2008, Desai et al. 2004), credit availability (Aggarwal and Kyaw 2008), depth of the capital market (Desai et al. 2004), and legal efficiency (Aggarwal and Kyaw 2008) have been used in previous studies to characterise the overall business and financial environment where companies operate. In transition countries these factors are likely to play an important role in the formation of capital structure. We have used the perceived level of credit constraints (CRED) obtained from the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS; conducted by EBRD and the World Bank) to characterise access by companies to credit resources. We expect the impact of this variable on leverage to be negative. Compared to local companies, we expect the impact to be low er for MNCs as their ability to raise funds is higher due to their higher reputation and availability of intra-group financing.

Traditional capital structure theory suggests that a positive relationship should exist between corporate tax rates and leverage since debt creates an opportunity to use tax shields. Several empirical studies on capital structure (e.g. MacKie-Mason 1990, Graham 1996) have found evidence of a positive relationship between leverage and marginal tax rate, supporting the trade-off theory. However, Jong et al. (2008) have reached contrasting results - in their study on capital structure determinants in 42 countries around the world, a negative or no relationship was found for most countries. The authors offer the explanation that debt/equity ratios are the cumulative result of individual financial decisions made in different years, and tax shields have a negligible effect on the marginal tax rate for most firms. A similar result is also derived by Booth et al. (2001) who studied capital structure choices of firms in 10 developing countries. They explain the inverse relationship between leverage and taxes with the possibility that the tax variable works as a proxy for profitability rather than for tax-shield effects - when firms are profitable they have to pay taxes, but when not profitable they do not get a tax refund.

In previous literature, taxation has been considered an important determinant of MNC capital structure. Desai et al. (2004) found that the host countiy tax rate has a positive and significant influence on MNC leverage as 10 percentage points higher local tax rates are associated with 2.8 percentage points higher debt/asset ratios of US owned affiliates. Huizinga et al. (2008) found a positive and significant relationship between the effective tax rate and the financial leverage of European MNCs. In their study on capital structure formation in some developing countries, Booth et al. (2001) calculated the average tax rate for each countiy, using company level data on earnings before taxes and earnings after taxes. Desai et al. (2004) calculated host country tax rates of MNCs as the ratio of foreign income tax paid to foreign pre-tax income for each affiliate, and then used the medians of these rates to arrive at countiy level observations for each countiy and year. We prefer company specific tax rates similarly to Jong et al. (2008) in order to allow for variation between companies. Effective tax rates (TAX) are calculated as tax cost divided by pre tax profit.

Some recent works (eg Jermias 2008) have pointed out that intensity of competition is likely to have an impact on the level of corporate debt. Competition is considered to be an alternative disciplining mechanism and therefore high competition may lead to a lower level of leverage. High competition is associated with higher risks and according to the agency theory firms operating in a risky environment should prefer lower leverage. In order to control for the intensity of competition we have included the Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI) measuring industiy concentration as one of the independent variables. Based on the previous literature, we expect the relationship between HHI and leverage to be positive.

3.2 Data

We have extracted data on companies operating in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from the Amadeus database compiled by Bureau van Dijk. The database provides financial statements and information regarding the ownership structure of private and publicly owned European companies. Companies in the public utilities and financial sector (US SIC codes 4000-4999 and 6000-6999) are excluded from the analysis due to their fundamentally different financial structure as in many other studies (Lee and Kwok 1988, Rajan and Zingales 1995, Chkir and Cosset 2001). Branches of foreign companies, cooperative companies and partnerships are also excluded from the sample since their legal form makes capital structure decisions different from regular limited liability companies. For eveiy company, data are included in the sample for those years for which financial information was available in sufficient level of detail and all components of assets and liabilities were non-negative. The sample consists of 87,000 company -year observations whereof 13% relate to multinational companies. The total number of companies included in the sample is 15,900.

Similarly to Huizinga et al. (2008), unconsolidated financial data are used. In order to avoid the unjustified influence of outliers on the regression results, for companies established before 1991 we have counted their age starting from year 1991 when the Baltic States regained their independence and the regulatory frameworks for operating a company were fundamentally changed.

As mentioned previously, the data for credit constraints are obtained from the BEEPS survey conducted by EBRD and the World Bank. The indicator has been composed by using BEEPS 2002, 2005 and 2009 data on access to finance. The original data provides firms' estimates regarding their ability to access finance in their country of residence on a 4-scale scale from "No obstacle" to "Veiy Severe Obstacle". The variable has been normalised, taking values between 0 and 1 . The missing observations for the years 2003-2004 and 2006-2007 have been derived using the cubic spline interpolation technique. Cubic spline interpolation is a fast, efficient and stable method of function interpolation dividing interpolation interval into small subintervals. Each of these sub intervals is interpolated by using the third-degree polynomial. The main advantages of spline interpolation are its stability and calculation simplicity. Spline interpolation incurs a smaller error than linear interpolation and the interpolant is smoother. The observations for 2000 and 2001 have been linearly extrapolated. The advantage of the indicator is that it allows for variance across industries and over time.

Descriptive statistics reveal that MNCs and local companies differ significantly in terms of all major company characteristics (see Appendix 1). On average, MNCs use less financial leverage than the non-multinational companies operating in the Baltic States - the mean value of adjusted leverage of non-multinationals is 32% and that of multinationals 29%. It becomes evident that MNCs are overall considerably bigger than local companies in terms of both sales and assets but carry relatively less tangible assets. The average level of profitability is higher in local companies. The perceived level of credit constraints of MNCs is considerably lower than that of local companies operating in the Baltic States. This supports the statement of Aggarwal and Kyaw (2008) that MNCs have an advantage over local companies in raising financing.

Looking into the dynamics of leverage over company lifetime (Figure 1), it appears that, in general, both MNCs and local companies increase their leverage within the first 2-3 years of operation. This tendency may be explained by informational asymmetries regarding the ability of start-ups to meet financial obligations, supporting findings by Akhtar and Olivier (2009) and Haas and Peeters (2004). However, as companies become older, leverage starts to decrease. This observation may be explained, similarly to Petersen and Rajan (1994) and Pfaffermayr et al. (2008), by the pecking order theory, suggesting that own funds that have been generated in previous years are preferred to external financing. Taking such a dynamic look seems to explain the contradictions in previous studies with respect to the relationship between age and leverage, at least in the Baltic context.

Interestingly, from the sixth year of operation, average leverage of MNCs starts to decrease much more rapidly than that of local companies. This cannot be explained by the dynamics of profitability (which would be a logical explanation in view of the pecking order theoiy) as MNCs appear to be less profitable than non-MNCs (Figure 2). However, the answer seems to lie in the significantly lower tangibility of MNCs. Local companies appear to be making more investments requiring relatively larger external funds in addition to equity. The lower tangibility of MNCs might be related to their tendency to perform certain functions for their parent or other group companies (e.g. acting as sales representatives or wholesale or retail traders) without a need for major investment. Understanding the reasons for the lower tangibility of MNCs is an area where more research is warranted. It is also interesting to note that MNCs tend to be less profitable than local companies in the early years of their development, a phenomenon that may be explained by the ability of MNCs to use group support in the start up phase, whereas local companies may be more constrained in their ability to enter the market. Further studies in this complex area would be needed.

4. Results

Table 2 below indicates the results of the fixed effects regression. Model 1 shows the outcome for the whole sample of Baltic companies. All of the independent variables incorporated in the model except for effective tax rate appear to be statistically significant determinants of leverage.

The outcome of our regression model shows overall a negative and significant relationship between company age and leverage. An increase in company age by one year would bring a reduction of leverage by 1.4%. This indicates that pecking order behaviour is dominant in Baltic companies. Compared to previous studies in the CEE context, our results confirm the findings of Nivorozhkin (2005). Although Haas and Peeters (2004) found an overall positive relationship between age and leverage, this may be explained by the fact that their study was performed on data from years 1993 to 2001 when informational and reputational aspects might have played a more central role in the credit process, outweighing the pecking order related effects.

Company size appears to have an overall positive and significant correlation with leverage. This finding is in line with previous research by Nivorozhkin (2005) and Jôeveer (2006). The positive influence of size on leverage indicates that bigger companies are able to borrow relatively more, a tendency which expectedly relates to reputational effects as well as relatively lower bankruptcy costs as discussed in the previous section. Our regression model coefficients for size indicate that a 1% increase in sales corresponds to an average 0.025% increase in the adjusted leverage. This outcome is very similar to the results for Canadian companies of Mittoo and Zhang (2008), who also had a coefficient of 0.02 for company size measured by the logarithm of sales.

As expected, the relationship between tangibility and leverage appears to be positive and significant, in line with the well established findings of previous studies (Rajan and Zingales 1995, Deesomsak et al. 2004, Gaud et al. 2007, Jong et al. 2008). A 10% increase in the share of fixed assets in total assets corresponds to an average increase of 4.1 percentage points in adjusted leverage.

Profitability appears to have an expected negative and significant correlation with leverage for the whole sample of Baltic companies. An increase of profitability by 10 percentage points corresponds to a decrease of adjusted leverage by 0.5 percentage points. The negative impact is in line with previous research on capital structure formation in CEE countries (Haas and Peeters 2004, Nivorozhkin 2005, Jöeveer 2006) as well as with pecking order theoiy, stipulating that companies prefer internally generated sources of financing to external ones. Based on the outcome of our regression model, the influence of effective tax rate on leverage is not statistically significant. Corporate income taxes paid do not seem to be among the major driving forces of capital structure decisions either for multinational or for non-multinational companies in the Baltic States. For Estonia, the explanation for the results may lie in the nature of the corporate income tax system whereby income tax is paid only when profit is distributed and debt does not function explicitly as a tax shield (Hazak 2009). For Latvia and Lithuania, other and more efficient tools than interest expense as a tax shield might be available for tax management. However, it cannot be ruled out that the capital structure formation of certain companies is significantly impacted by taxation, whereas the multifaceted nature of international and local taxation principles with respect to different groups and companies may not have enabled us to bring out these potential relationships in our regression models. Surprisingly, credit constraints exhibit a positive impact on leverage for the whole sample. The phenomenon is discussed below together with the results for Model 2 as the explanation seems to lie in the different behaviour of local and multinational companies.

Contrary to our expectations, the coefficient for the Herfindahl-Hirschman index is negative, indicating that high industry concentration results in lower leverage. A possible explanation for the relationship could be that lower competition enables accumulation of higher profits and thus use of internal funds instead of external financing.

Model 2 enables us to observe the differences between the capital structure determinants of multinational and local companies. The leverage impact of company age, size and credit constraints appears to be significantly different for MNCs and local companies. As can also be observed from Figure 1, there is a stronger negative impact of age for multinational companies, confirming that older multinationals prefer to be less leveraged than local companies of the same age. A possible reason for the difference could be that local company owners are less risk averse (as illustrated by the higher profitability and thus potentially higher risks of local firms), preferring to withdraw profits earned to invest elsewhere or use retained earnings to attract additional debt for further expansion of the company, while multinationals appear to retain profits and potentially repay loans from these funds. This assumption would be an interesting subject for testing in future research.

The impact of company size on leverage appears to be larger for multinational companies, contrary to our predictions. This could be related to the lower business risks of multinational companies. Another possible explanation for the difference relates to agency theoiy - the need for monitoring management increases with the size of the company and debt serves as a monitoring device. Monitoring need is likely to be higher for multinational companies due to more complex group structures as well as cultural differences and geographical distances. The existence of higher monitoring needs of multinational companies would need to be studied further in the future.

The difference between MNCs and local companies in the impact of credit constraints on leverage is most striking. While the impact of credit constraints on leverage of multinational corporations is slightly negative, as one would expect, the similar impact for local companies is positive. The unexpected direction of the impact in the latter case can be explained by credit market development in the Baltic States. As illustrated in Figure 3, local companies perceived higher credit constraints compared to MNCs throughout the observed period, but especially during the years of rapid economic growth and the credit boom in 2003-2007. While credit constraints seem to have hindered lending by local companies up to 2005, the overall economic and credit boom appears to have led local companies to follow the boom and undertake risky projects in the following years. Part of these projects and investments appear to have been successful in attracting external finance (as illustrated by increased average leverage), while the increasing level of perceived credit constraints indicates that many of these potentially ambitious projects were difficult to fund. This relationship also shows that compared to local companies, MNCs have been in an advantageous situation in accessing external financing, as illustrated by their lower perceived credit constraints as well as by their ability to increase average leverage at the beginning of the 2000s when actual credit constraints were strongest (Figure 4). On the other hand, the above finding might show that the overall approach by MNCs to taking risks and borrowing is more conservative compared to local companies.

In the case of long-term leverage, the difference between MNCs and local companies in capital structure determinants is mainly evident for tangibility. The stronger effect on local companies might be related to the overall lower and slower growing tangibility of MNCs (Figure 2) as well as to the ability of MNCs to raise debt (including intra-group debt) and prove their creditworthiness by other means than having solid collateral in the form of tangible assets. The differences in the dynamics of profitability between MNCs and local companies (Figure 2) do not seem to lead to any significant effects on adjusted leverage but the negative influence is stronger in the case of long-term leverage. This could be related to the tendency that instead of raising loans for long-term investments, MNCs prefer to use accumulated profits. We also run Model 3 for the subsample of companies with leverage above zero (See Table 2). Observing this subsample is especially relevant in the case of long-term leverage since over 40% of observations do not involve any long-term loans. In the case of adjusted leverage, factors that have a different impact on the leverage of multinational and local companies remain the same as for the full sample. However, in the case of long-term leverage, the subsample with leverage above zero has a different outcome for the impact of company size. The impact of company size on leverage for local companies becomes negative - the bigger the local company the less long-term leverage it tends to have. This might be related to the smaller size of local companies - as long-term debt is generally used for financing large investment projects, the amount of related long-term loans is usually relatively large in comparison to company size, leading to a significant increase in long-term leverage.

5. Conclusions

We investigate the impact of major capital structure determinants of local and multinational companies (MNCs) operating in the Baltic States. The outcome of our panel regression model shows an overall negative and significant relationship between company age and leverage. As companies get older, leverage starts to decrease, in line with pecking order theory, suggesting that own funds which have been generated in previous years are preferred to external financing.

Profitability appears to have a negative and significant correlation with leverage, a finding in accordance with previous research as well as with pecking order theory. Local companies appear to have significantly higher profit margins, which may be associated with potentially higher risks of local businesses.

We find that bigger companies (are able to) borrow relatively more, a tendency which expectedly relates to reputational effects as well as relatively lower bankruptcy costs. The relationship between tangibility and leverage appears to be positive and significant, also in line with the findings of previous studies.

We find significant differences in the leverage of multinational and non-multinational companies in the Baltic States. On average, MNCs appear to be more leveraged than local companies (three percentage points higher adjusted leverage), which seems to be primarily related to the higher investment level (thus requiring relatively more external funds) and lack of alternatives to external financing for the latter. The lower tangibility of MNCs might be related to their tendency to perform certain functions for their parent or other group companies (e.g. acting as sales representatives or wholesale or retail traders) without a need for major investment.

Our regression results show differences between local and multinational companies in the sensitivity of their leverage to some capital structure determinants. Namely, the impact of company size on leverage appears to be larger for MNCs. A possible explanation lies in agency theory - the need for monitoring of management increases with the size of the company and debt serves as a monitoring device, whereas monitoring need is likely to be overall higher for multinational companies. Also, the negative impact of company age is stronger in the case of multinational companies, indicating that local company owners might be less risk averse, preferring to withdraw profits earned to invest elsewhere or use retained earnings to attract additional debt for further expansion of the company, while multinationals appear to retain profits and potentially repay loans from these funds.

We find an interesting difference between MNCs and local companies in the impact of credit constraints on leverage. While the impact of credit constraints on leverage of multinational corporations is, as expected, slightly negative, the similar impact for local companies is positive. While credit constraints seem to have hindered lending by local companies up to 2005, the overall economic and credit boom appears to have led local companies to follow the boom and undertake risky projects in the following years. Part of these projects and investments appear to have been successful in attracting external finance, while the increasing level of perceived credit constraints indicates that many of these ambitious projects were difficult to fund. This relationship also shows that compared to local companies, MNCs have been in an advantageous situation in accessing external financing, as illustrated by their lower perceived credit constraints as well as by their ability to increase average leverage at the beginning of the 2000s when actual credit constraints were strongest. On the other hand, the above finding might show that the overall approach by MNCs to taking risks and borrowing is more conservative compared to local companies.

As mentioned earlier in the paper, due to limitations on the availability of relevant data, we could not differentiate intra-group and third party debt in our study. Should such information be available in the future, this would represent an interesting area for research.

We have pointed out that the level of tangibility is significantly lower for MNCs compared to local companies operating in the Baltic States. The reasons for this difference are another area where more research is warranted. We have also noted that MNCs tend to be less profitable than local companies in the early years of their development, a phenomenon that may be explained by the ability of MNCs to use group support in the start up phase, whereas local companies may be more constrained in their ability to enter the market. Further studies in this complex area would be needed.

Our regression results showed that negative impact of company age is stronger for MNCs than local companies. Whether this is caused by the higher tendency to retain profits, should be tested in further studies. The possible difference of monitoring needs of multinational companies compared to local companies is also an area that needs to be studied further in the future as this might have implications on the capital structure choice.

In general, our results indicate that MNCs operating in the Baltic States have had more flexibility in attracting external finance as well as in using internal (group) financing compared to their local counterparts. Whether this enables them to achieve higher productivity and financial success remains a subject for future research.

References

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