DO THE AUDIT COMMITTEE CHARACTERISTICS BEGET CAPITAL STRUCTURE? EVIDENCE FROM LISTED PUBLIC SECTOR ENTERPRISES OF INDIA 1 0

Abstract

Determination of capital structure is a financing decision of strategic importance for managers. Capital structure pertains to the combination of debt and equity used to finance a firm's assets. The decision on capital structure influences its operational capabilities, and companies worldwide have been grappling with the challenge of finding an optimal capital structure that ensures decrease in cost of capital and increase in shareholder value, a puzzle that both practitioners and academics have been working to solve. This paper investigates the impact of audit committee characteristics on capital structure of listed public sector enterprises during the period of ten years from 2012-13 to 2021-22. Financial data has been collected from Prowess database and committee characteristics data from annual report of respective companies. Using regression analysis, it found from the result that there was significant relation of presence of audit committee, its size and meeting on capital structure of the companies.