Impact of Capital Structure on Financial Performance of Construction and Real Estate Quoted Companies in Nigeria

This paper examines the impact of capital structure on the financial performance of quoted Construction
and Real Estate Companies in Nigeria from 2005-2014.The study made use of ex post facto research
design which involved gathering panel dataset from the published annual financial statements of firms in
the Construction and Real Estate Sector listed on the Nigerian stock Exchange from 2005 through 2014.
Pooled ordinary least square regression was used to analyse the data to identify the relationship between a
dependent variable and one or more independent variables. The findings of the research revealed that
Capital Structure of showed a positive and significant effect on financial performance proxies by Earnings
Per Share, Return on Capital Employed, Return on Equity but its impact on Return on Assets is
insignificant. The result of our study portrays that capital structure of the Construction and Real Estate
Sector firms listed on the Nigerian stock Exchange has a significant impact on firms’ financial
performance based on the following performance proxies (Earnings per Share, Return on Capital
Employed, Return on Equity) but does not significantly influence return on assets. It also provides
additional study evidence on capital structure and performance of Nigerian construction and real estate
sector.