Effect of Ownership Structure and Characteristics of the Audit Committee on Financial Distress

This study aims to empirically test and analyze the effect of ownership structure and audit committee characteristics on financial distress in property and real estate companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) for the 2017-2021 period. The ownership structure tested in this study consisted of institutional ownership and managerial ownership, while the audit committee characteristics tested consisted of audit committee size, audit committee independence, and audit committee meeting frequency. The sampling technique used in this study was purposive sampling and obtained as many as 210 company-years. The data used is included in the type of secondary data sourced from the company's annual report published on the IDX website and the website of each company. Data were analyzed using multiple linear regression analysis with the help of the SPSS 26 program. The findings in this study indicate that the frequency of audit committee meetings has a significant effect on financial distress, while institutional ownership, managerial ownership, audit committee size, and audit committee independence have no significant effect on financial distress. These findings can be used as consideration for management in taking action to overcome financial distress and as useful information for investors in making decisions to invest in a company.