Capital Structure in Agribusiness Companies: General and Bank Indebtedness in the Period From 2004 to 2011

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate the capital structure in a sample of 23 companies from Brazilian agribusiness listed on BM&FBOVESPA, analyzing their overall and bank indebtedness, based on data from its standard financial statements DFPS in the period from 2004 to 2011. This is a descriptive research concerning its objectives, basic and applied on its nature and quantitative approach on what refers to the problem, using statistical techniques for data analyzes. From this, we analyzed the impact of debt on the results and its possible relationship with the volume of financial resources available through the official agricultural policy. Although the results from the analyzes donÂt show any relevant change in capital structure of these companies in the past four years, the composition of the debt is presented differently, with significant increase in bank indebtedness, evidencing a debt profile different from the period from 2004 to 2007. Even though the fact is coincident with increased profitability of companies since 2008, it could not be conclusive, based on data and analysis, the increase in debt has been a favorable factor. What follow, however, is that the increase in commodity prices may have been explanatory factor for the increase of the profitability of the companies studied.