THE IMPACT OF CAPITAL STRUCTURE AND OWNERSHIP ON THE PERFORMANCE OF STATE ENTERPRISES AFTER EQUITIZATION: EVIDENCE FROM VIETNAM

The main objective of this paper is to study the impact of capital structure and capital ownership form of SOEs after equitization. We have considered all 137 state-owned companies after equitization for which data can be collected during the period from 2007 to 2017. These encompass companies in different industries listed on the HOSE (Ho Chi Minh City) and HNX (Hanoi) stock exchanges. To this end, we have applied REM and FEM models and corrected for variance with the GLS and FEM models. Our findings reveal that the variable leverage (LEV) has a negative impact on ROA, but, interestingly, has a positive impact on ROE and Tobin’s Q. Growth rate (GROWTH) have a positive effect on both ROA and Tobin’s Q. State ownership (SO) has only positive impact on ROA. Meanwhile, the company size variable (SIZE) has a positive impact on Tobin’s Q. In addition, in relation to our examination of how the domestic and foreign resources might impact on the profitability ratio, we have observed that the domestic equity ratio has a positive impact on both ROA and ROE whereas the foreign ownership ratio has a negative impact on both ROA and ROE.