IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jjrfmx/v18y2025i7p371-d1693800.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Capital Leases Affect Firm Performance: An Analysis in the Shipping Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Ioannis C. Negkakis

    (Plymouth Business School, University of Plymouth, Plymouth PL48AA, UK)

Abstract

This study examines the effects of capital lease arrangements on the operating performance of shipping firms as proxied by Return on Assets (ROA). The maritime industry is highly capital-intensive, often requiring substantial investments in fleet acquisition and maintenance, making ROA particularly relevant as it captures the effectiveness of firms in utilizing their leased and owned assets to generate operating income. As such, many firms rely on lease arrangements to access necessary resources while preserving liquidity and financial flexibility. Using an international sample of 209 shipping firms, we estimate fixed effects regressions to assess the relationship between lease intensity and performance of the shipping firms. The findings reveal that capital lease intensity is positively associated with operating performance, indicating that leasing can be a value-enhancing financing strategy in this sector. However, the performance benefits of capital leases diminish under IFRS 16 reporting, particularly for firms with higher leverage. These findings offer important implications for investors, regulators, and managers evaluating capital structure decisions and financial reporting strategies in capital-intensive industries post-IFRS 16 implementation.

Suggested Citation

  • Ioannis C. Negkakis, 2025. "How Capital Leases Affect Firm Performance: An Analysis in the Shipping Industry," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-14, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:18:y:2025:i:7:p:371-:d:1693800
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/18/7/371/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/18/7/371/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rampini, Adriano A. & Viswanathan, S., 2013. "Collateral and capital structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 466-492.
    2. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    3. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    4. Kraus, Alan & Litzenberger, Robert H, 1973. "A State-Preference Model of Optimal Financial Leverage," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 28(4), pages 911-922, September.
    5. Francesco Parola & Giovanni Satta & Photis M Panayides, 2015. "Corporate strategies and profitability of maritime logistics firms," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 17(1), pages 52-78, March.
    6. Hasibul Chowdhury & Shofiqur Rahman & Harikumar Sankaran, 2021. "Leverage deviation from the target debt ratio and leasing," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(2), pages 3481-3515, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bhanot, Karan & François, Pascal & Kadapakkam, Palani-Rajan, 2025. "How does the structure of an interest expense cap change the tax benefits of debt?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    2. Khémiri, Wafa & Noubbigh, Hédi, 2020. "Size-threshold effect in debt-firm performance nexus in the sub-Saharan region: A Panel Smooth Transition Regression approach," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 335-344.
    3. Kim, Sang-Joon & Bae, John & Oh, Hannah, 2019. "Financing strategically: The moderation effect of marketing activities on the bifurcated relationship between debt level and firm valuation of small and medium enterprises," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 663-681.
    4. Georg Wamser, 2014. "The Impact of Thin-Capitalization Rules on External Debt Usage – A Propensity Score Matching Approach," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 76(5), pages 764-781, October.
    5. Luc Renneboog & Peter G. Szilagyi, 2008. "Corporate Restructuring and Bondholder Wealth," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 14(4), pages 792-819, September.
    6. Rana El Bahsh & Ali Alattar & Aziz N. Yusuf, 2018. "Firm, Industry and Country Level Determinants of Capital Structure: Evidence from Jordan," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 8(2), pages 175-190.
    7. Elif Acar & Gamze Vural & Emin Hüseyin Çetenak, 2020. "Evidence for Financial Hierarchy Theory in Capital Structure Decisions: Data from BIST Companies," Bogazici Journal, Review of Social, Economic and Administrative Studies, Bogazici University, Department of Economics, vol. 34(1), pages 29-50.
    8. Robert Hull, 2020. "Pass-Through and C Corp Outputs under TCJA," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-32, August.
    9. Le, Thi Phuong Vy & Phan, Thi Bich Nguyet, 2017. "Capital structure and firm performance: Empirical evidence from a small transition country," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 710-726.
    10. Udochukwu Godfrey Ogbonna & Chukwu Agwu Ejem, 2020. "Dynamic Modeling of Market Value and Capital Structure in Nigerian Firms," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 10(1), pages 1-5.
    11. Pamela P. Peterson & Larry D. Wall, 1996. "Banks' responses to binding regulatory capital requirements," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, vol. 80(Mar), pages 1-17.
    12. Xiaoyan Chen & Xin Ling, 2017. "Determinants of Chinese equity financing behaviours: traditional model and the alternatives," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57, pages 69-100, April.
    13. Jarle Møen & Dirk Schindler & Guttorm Schjelderup & Julia Tropina, 2011. "International Debt Shifting: Do Multinationals Shift Internal or External Debt?," Working Paper Series of the Department of Economics, University of Konstanz 2011-40, Department of Economics, University of Konstanz.
    14. Magdalena Haring & Rainer Niemann & Silke Rünger, 2016. "Investor Taxation, Firm Heterogeneity and Capital Structure Choice," CESifo Working Paper Series 6098, CESifo.
    15. Carl Chiarella & Toan Pham & Ah Boon Sim & Madeleine Tan, 1991. "Determinants of Corporate Capital Structure: Australian Evidence," Working Paper Series 3, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney.
    16. Pamela P. Peterson & Larry D. Wall, 1998. "The choice of capital instruments," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, vol. 83(Q 2), pages 4-17.
    17. Hong-Yi Chen & Cheng Few Lee & Tzu Tai, 2020. "The Joint Determinants of Capital Structure and Stock Rate of Return: A LISREL Model Approach," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Cheng Few Lee & John C Lee (ed.), HANDBOOK OF FINANCIAL ECONOMETRICS, MATHEMATICS, STATISTICS, AND MACHINE LEARNING, chapter 35, pages 1345-1397, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    18. Michael Espindola Araki & Henrique Castro Martins, 2022. "Integrating uncertainty and governance into a capital structure puzzle: can risk-taking and rule-taking explain zero-leverage firms?," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 16(6), pages 1979-2034, August.
    19. Morais, Flávio & Serrasqueiro, Zélia & Ramalho, Joaquim J.S., 2020. "The zero-leverage phenomenon: A bivariate probit with partial observability approach," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    20. Oscar Briones & Melisa Chang, 2017. "Capital Structure Determinants Influence: A Comparative Study," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 5007097, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:18:y:2025:i:7:p:371-:d:1693800. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.