Influence of Debt Maturity on Firm Performance: An International Comparison

Abstract

This paper manipulate the effect of capital structure maturity on firm performance. Debt maturity is measured by three ratios (the long term capital structure, the short term capital structure and total debt ratio). We test a sample consisting of 116 firms from Malaysia and 92 firms from Mexico over a period of 7 years from 2005 to 2011. We could not find evidence on the effect of the long term debt ratio on firm performance. However, firms with higher short term capital structure ratio, are less profitable. This result is valid for firms from Malaysia and Mexico. The results of total debt ratio rare mixed. We conclude to a positive effect for firms of Malaysia and a negative effect for firms of Mexico.