Pattern of Shareholding and Leverage: Context of the Energy Sector of Pakistan

This paper attempts to empirically test the impact of shareholding pattern using ownership concentration and managerial ownership as proxies of pattern of shareholding, on capital structure of energy sector firms listed at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) during period 2008 – 2018. We use ordinary least square (OLS) and system generalized method of moments (SGMM) to estimate our results to ensure robustness and to control for the potential endogeneity bias. Our results suggest that ownership concentration leads to higher debt ratio, whereas, managerial ownership leads to lower debt ratio. Our findings can be helpful for the policymakers to devise policies to separate the ownership and control from management to protect the rights of the minority shareholders.&nbsp