Equity Share Financing and Financial Performance of Manufacturing Companies Listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange Market in Kenya

Financial performance is key to the existence of any business organization because it defines its reason for existence as a going concern. It hence supports the continuity, effectiveness and efficiency of a firm. Manufacturing firms face financial performance challenges related to financing options undertaken by finance managers. Weak choice of financing options may result into low financial performance. Despite investments made by manufacturing firms in Kenya, they still face low financial performance. This study determined the effect of equity share financing on financial performance of manufacturing companies listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange market in Kenya. The study was supported by market timing theory. The descriptive research design was utilized to seek relationship between the variables in the study. The target population for the study was 8 listed manufacturing companies at the NSE, and the study was conducted through census approach. Secondary data was collected from the NSE and the individual company’s website using a secondary data collection sheet from 2015 to 2024. The quantitative data was processed using STATA and descriptive statistics including mean, standard deviation, frequency and percentages were used to analyze the data. In addition, inferential statistics that is correlation coefficient as well as regression was applied to make inferences of the population using data drawn from the population. The Pearson correlation coefficients were used to show the strengths and direction of association among the study variables. Equity share financing was positive and significantly correlated to ROA with β = 0.214 and t = 2.97. The study therefore concluded that, financing through equity share determined financial performance of manufacturing companies listed at the Nairobi securities exchange market in Kenya. The study recommended that managers of manufacturing firms ought to concentrate on equity share to meet financial goals. The study is of great significance to the manufacturing sector, investors and financial advisors, government and other regulatory bodies as well as scholars and researcher.