The Impact of loan capital on the Baltic listed companies’ investment and growth

LTSkolintas kapitalas ir jo dėka vykdomos investicijos suteikia kompanijoms strateginių konkurencinių pranašumų. Investicijų augimas sąlygoja skolinto kapitalo augimą, ir atvirkščiai. Tačiau interesų konfliktai tarp akcininkų, vadovų ir kreditorių sąlygoja nepakankamas arba perteklines investicijas, kurios savo ruožtu turi neigiamą įtaką įmonių vertei. Straipsnio tikslas - įvertinti skolinto kapitalo poveikį Baltijos šalių įmonių investicijoms ir augimui. Tyrime buvo naudojami Lietuvos, Latvijos ir Estijos listinguojamų įmonių finansiniai rodikliai iš šių įmonių skelbiamų metinių ataskaitų. Į tyrimą įtraukti tik nefinansinių kompanijų duomenys. Tyrimo laikotarpis apima 2000-2006 m. Atskirose Baltijos šalyse gauti tyrimo rezultatai gana skirtingi. Lietuvos bendrovėse nustatyta silpna neigiama investicijų ir rinkos verte pagrįsto skolos koeficiento priklausomybė patvirtina ribojantį skolų vaidmenį investiciniams sprendimams priimti. Tuo tarpu priklausomybės tarp balansine verte pagrįstų kapitalo struktūros rodiklių ir investicijų nenustatyta. Baltijos šalyse skolos ribojantis poveikis investicijoms pasireiškė tik didelių augimo galimybių įmonėse. Tyrimo rezultatai patvirtino daugelio tyrėjų nustatytą neigiamą augimo ryšį su rinkos verte pagrįstu įsiskolinimo koeficientu. Gautas vidutinis neigiamas Tobin’s Q koreliacinis ryšys su rinkos verte pagrįstu skolos lygiu rodo, kad aukštesnis skolos lygis sąlygoja mažesnę įmonės vertę ir mažesnes jos augimo galimybes. Skolintų lėšų panaudojimas skatina nepakankamas investicijas ir turi neigiamą poveikį įmonei augti.Reikšminiai žodžiai: Finansavimo sprendimai; Investicijų politika; Nepakankamų ir perteklinių investicijų efektas; Augimo galimybės; Financing decisions; Investment politics; Overinvestment effect; Underinvestment effect; Growth opportunities; Finansavimo sprendimai; Financing decisions.

ENLoan capital and investment made with the help of it, grant strategic competitive advantages to companies. Loan capital and investment often are the elements supplementing each other: growth in investment results in the growth of loan capital and vice versa. But the conflicts of interests between shareholders, managers and creditors precondition either underinvestment or overinvestment, which, in its turn, has a negative impact on corporate value. Such an ambiguous influence of loans on corporate investment and growth is one of relevant fields of corporate finance governance that requires extensive analysis. Empirical tests performed by different authors are based on the data analysis of developed countries' companies and the obtained results are rather ambivalent. So far, no research into interaction between investing and financial decisions has been carried out in the Baltic countries. To investigate the impact of loan capital on the investment and growth of the Baltic companies, financial indicators of Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian listed companies from the annual reports-prospectuses published by these companies were used. The research includes only non-financial companies' data because financial institutions adopt specific decisions on investing and financing, which are preconditioned by other factors. The research covers the period of 2000-2006 and uses the data of 76 companies.To determine the strength of influence of corporate debts and other specific factors on investment, the multidimensional analysis of correlation between the level of investment and such indicators, as cash flow, debt ratio, the level of non-current debts, the ratio of debts and the market value of asset, growth possibilities, sales, was used. [...] The research findings showed the effect of overinvestment in Latvian companies but the effect of underinvestment in Estonian and Lithuanian companies in the period in question. With the aim to determine whether the impact of loan capital on investment manifests itself alike in companies with different growth possibilities, the study was made on the dependence between investment and specific corporate indicators for the group of companies with a low Q (Tobin's Q <1) and the group of companies with a high Q (Tobin's Q >1). The obtained results show that in the Baltic countries the constraining effect of debt was recorded only among the companies with high growth opportunities. In the meantime, the capital structure of companies with low growth opportunities had no clear impact current investing. The results of research into the impact of capital structure on the growth of Baltic companies show that a higher level of debts preconditions a lower corporate value and smaller opportunities of growth. [From the publication]