Impacts of capital structure: profitability of construction companies in Ethiopia

Purpose Capital structure decisions are important decisions for any business activity because they have considerable influence on the worth and cost of companies. Most previous studies in Ethiopia were primarily focused on identifying and measuring problems in banking sectors and other sectors and paying little attention to the construction sector. The purpose of this study is mainly to fill the gap by examining the effects of capital structure on the profitability of construction firms in Ethiopia. Design/methodology/approach To test hypotheses of the study, time series secondary data were gathered from the sample of 30 grade one construction companies in Ethiopia during the 2011–2015 period. To examine the correlation among capital structures and its determinants, random effect multiple regression models were used. Findings From the regression outcomes, the study indicates that capital structure measured by debt to equity and long-term debt to total assets has a significant positive correlation with return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA) of sampled construction companies. However, the capital structure measured by debt to assets has a significant negative correlation with ROE and ROA of sampled construction companies in Ethiopia. Originality/value This paper is the author’s original work and assures that the paper was not undertaken anywhere and is also not published in any journal before.