The Impact of Ownership Structure on Dividend Policy of Listed Companies in Srilanka: With Special Reference to the Banks Finance and Insurance Sector

Abstract

This paper aims at providing the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between the ownership structure and dividend policy. For the purpose of this research, sample consists of a panel of 30 Bank Finance and Insurance companies listed in Colombo stock exchange and period of 5 years, from 2011 to 2015. To analyze the impact of the different ownership structure on dividend payout policies of Sri Lankan listed companies, a multiple regression model is performed. The regression results indicate that only two hypotheses are supported, while two hypotheses are accepted. The research's findings indicate a significant negative relationship between the institutional ownership and dividend per share and significant positive relationship between foreign ownership and the dividend per share, while insignificant positive relationship between the concentrated ownership and dividend per share Control variable ROE, Firm size, and FGO indicate an insignificant association with DPS.