한국해운기업의 경영적 특성이 재무구조에 미친 영향에 관한 실증연구: 1997년도 외환위기 전후를 중심으로

Abstract

The Korean shipping Industry has the difference from other industry in the fund-raising type for the vessel acquisition due to the characteristics of the industry, and the financial structure of shipping firms is shown to be very weak against the manufacturing business.

Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to examine the factors which affect the financial structure after the foreign exchange crisis, based on the factors which have the effect upon the financial structure. And then this research presents the alternatives which can strengthen the financial structure of Korean shipping industry.

To accomplish the purpose of this study,

Firstly, the theoretical background on financial structure and corporate value decision and the preceding study on the decision of financial structure are reviewed, and then the affecting factors of the financial structure are identified.

Secondly, the effect which the foreign exchange crisis have upon the shipping industry and its industrial characteristics are examined, and the features of management conditions and financial structure, comparing it with the manufacturing business are analysed.

Thirdly, This paper examines the difference of financial structure before and after the foreign exchange crisis by T-test for the shipping firms in Korea. And also the effecting factors of financial structure are extracted, and then the effect relationship with debt ratio(total debt and fixed debt), proxy variable, which can represent the financial structure, by the multivariate regression analysis are examined.

The results of this research are summarized as follows

Secondly, it is shown that there is no relation between the sales which is the enterprise size of ocean shipping firms and the fixed debt ratio during the verification period (1998 to 2001) after the foreign exchange crisis.

In the most preceding studies, the larger the enterprise size is, the higher the reliability of enterprise is, and so the loan becomes easy.

It supports the hypothesis that the debt is favored to reduce the dividend pressure on the stockholders and the proxy expenses on own capital but it is shown that it is not supported in the shipping firms.

The fitness of Model is somewhat low, but it is shown that it has no relationship with the size and debt ratio in the comparison period which is the year before the foreign exchange crisis.

Thirdly, it is shown that it has no concerns with the sales change ratio and the financial structure which indicate the business risk of ocean shipping firms.

In the ocean shipping firms, debt ratio is very high under the industrial characteristics against other industries. In case the conditions of shipping market is uncertain, the enterprise risk is higher and higher as much as the bankruptcy risk is considered.

In case the marketing situations is expected to be dull, it is general that the equity is reduced and then the debt is reimbursed by the decision of conservative opinions. But in case of the ocean shipping firms, when the conditions of shipping market become dull, the incomes of shipping freight is sharply reduced, and also the reserve power of repaying the debt becomes disappear upon the characteristics of shipping firm, and it shows the features which the additional supply of debt is difficult.

That is to say, before the sales change ratio which is the incomes of shipping freight has the direct effect upon the debt rate, there are many uncertainties in shipping environment, and thus it is shown to reflect the industrial attribute of ocean shipping firms.

Also, the sales change ratio is not stably calculated by the shortage of sample, and so the hypothesis is not supported.

Fourthly, it appears that the coverage which shows the interest payment ability of shipping firms does not have the effect upon debt ratio which is the financial structure.

In most cases, if the business profit is large against the interest size, the fund raising power is big and so it can be considered that debt ratio is relatively high, but in case of the shipping firms, it is not supported.

Fifthly, the suitability of fixed assets, which is the fixed rate(fixed asset/equity), and the debt rate shows the strongest positive relationship in the examination year which is before and after the foreign exchange crisis, the year concerned to the foreign exchange crisis, and the comparison year which is before the foreign exchange crisis.

The meaning of this positive results proves the most important financial and investment opinion decision which the vessel scale is changed as the vessel is the main-operational-fixed assets under the characteristics of shipping industries, and it is judged that the decision of investment opinions for the vessel acquisition has the biggest effect upon the financial structure.

Sixthly, it rejected the hypothesis 5 indicating that the chartering incomes rates reflecting the features of shipping industries affect the debt ratio.

The chartering activities are the high risk shipping activities and also are the important activities which decide the scale of fleet.

The increasing and decreasing of chartering scale do not have the direct relationship with the financial structure of shipping firms.

Seventhly, it is shown that there is no the noted effect relationship between the cash flow of shipping firms and the financial structure.

As the cash flow is calculated as the depreciation plus the net income for the period.

The higher the depreciation is, the higher the securities value for the debt raising is. It is the results against the most preceding studies which debt ratio is high when the cash flow is high.

Eighthly, it shows that the foreign exchange gain and loss ratio and debt ratio have the effect relationship.

The verification period after the foreign exchange crisis was the special economy environment in which the foreign exchange rate was sharply increased rather than before.

In these environments, it was not avoidable that the extreme foreign exchange difference loss and the foreign conversion loss were given to the shipping firms which own the long-term foreign debt, and the worsening of financial structure was essential due to this.

It will have to consider the examination results which reflected these economy situations and the industrial characteristics.

On the other hand, the suggestion shown in this study academically and practically is as shown in the followings.

Firstly, there is the value of study on which I extracted the factor affecting the financial structure and analysed the effect relationship in consideration with the environmental characteristics before the foreign exchange crisis on the object of shipping firms which is different in the industrial characteristics from the general manufacturing enterprises and listed enterprises.

Secondly, as the results of examining the fitness of financial structure in the shipping firms, ROA(Return on Assets) is below the capital cost, and thus it is difficult to look forward to the positive financial leverage effect.

Notwithstanding, it can be regarded that it is due to the industrial characteristics of fund raising form for the vessel acquisition which debt ratio is very high against the manufacturing enterprise.

However, for the purpose of having the international competition power in the changing shipping environment, it is shown to require the management efforts of business circles which reduces debt ratio gradually and the support policy of government.

Finally, as the limit of this study and the further study subject,

Even though this study inspected whole samples in ocean shipping firms, the number of sample is not so many against the sampling period, and so it can not be exclude the possibility that the bias of sample dispersion has the effect upon the study results.

So, it is required to study on the various analysis to the factor of affecting the financial structure of Korean shipping firms, which reflects the further characteristics of the shipping industry.

Firstly, as the result of analysing the difference of financial structure of shipping firms before and after the foreign exchange crisis, it was found that there were differences in total debt ratio and fixed debt ratio.

As the result of structure adjustment due to the pressure of reducing debt ratio by the government and the vessel sales of shipping companies, the total debt ratio of shipping firms was reduced from 2,000% of the comparison year to 975% and the fixed debt ratio from 1,124% to 496%, after the foreign exchange crisis.

With regard to the change of financial structure in the shipping firms before and after the foreign exchange crisis. The results of examining the relationship between the factors which affect financial structure after the foreign exchange crisis are as follows