Debt Structure of Public Brazilian Companies: an Empirical Study

This article examines the major determinants of private and public issues of debt decisions by public traded companies on the Sao Paulo exchange. The major findings include that companies with higher fixed assets in proportion to fixed assets and thus subject to higher liquidation costs tend to finance with private issues of debt. In addition, the higher the long-term liabilities, the more likely the company will diversify its debt financing, increasing the public issues of debt. This provide evidence that as the company presents decreasing asymmetric information, public issues of debt is likely to increase. Other factors, such as, economies of scale and other variables to control for asymmetric information seem to be of little significance.