The main objective of this study is to find the relationship between capital structure, free cash flow, and performance of oil and gas companies listed on PSX over the last eleven years (2005-2015). The study is quantitative in nature, follow positivistic paradigm and deductive approach. The study employ capital structure measure, total debt to total assets ratio, and free cash flow as the independent variables of the study, while firm?s performance measures, return on assets and Tobin?s Q are included as the dependent variables of the study. The study also employs firm size, assets growth, interest rate, inflation rate and world oil prices as the control variables.
The population of the study consists of all oil and gas firms listed on PSX and financial period under consideration is from 2005 to 2015. The whole oil and gas sector consisting of twelve companies is under study but due to unavailability of financial data of two companies for full period under consideration, the final sample consist of ten oil and gas companies listed on PSX. Out of ten PSX listed oil and gas companies, four companies are involved in oil and gas exploration and production and the other six are involved in oil and gas marketing and distribution. Thus, to get better insight into the performance of both category of firms, overall PSX listed oil and gas firms were broadly categorized in two categories i.e. exploration and production companies and marketing and distribution companies.
The required financial data is extracted from the annual reports of the sample companies and different statistical analysis is performed with the help of Stata version 13.0, to fulfill the objectives of the study. After assumption testing through Hausman Test, and BPLM Test, an OLS regression model is selected as the final model and interpretations are made accordingly.
The study find a negative relationship between total debt to total assets ratio and firm?s performance measured through return on assets and Tobin?s Q for oil and gas exploration and production companies as well as for oil and gas marketing and distribution companies, suggesting that higher level of debt will decrease firm?s performance. The results also showed a significant positive relationship between free cash flow and both firm?s performance measures under study for oil and gas exploration and production companies as well as for oil and gas marketing and distribution companies, indicating a lack of evidence supporting the free cash flow hypothesis. The results also showed a significant positive relationship between assets growth and both firm?s performance measures under study for both categories of oil and gas companies, whereas, a significant negative relationship is observed between firm size, interest rate, inflation rate, world oil prices for both categories of oil and gas companies under study and both firm?s performance measures.
Keeping track with the growing literature on Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and his role in the modern Indian politics, may be an interesting and stimulating undertaking for the students of history. One thing is quite obvious that with the passage of time both in Pakistan and India—more so in the latter than in the former—the official historiography is being surpassed by historians aspiring to look into the partition afresh. The official historiographies in India and Pakistan had remained in vogue, in both countries, particularly during the initial two decades. This may be attributed to the momentum of respective Muslim and the Indian nationalist movements, which dominated the intellectual horizon in the two countries after independence. The postcolonial states in the two countries also relied heavily on their respective pre-partition nationalist assertions to construct their ideological edifices while aspiring to legitimize the state authorities. It was during the 1970s, that historians amassed courage to question some of the logical inconsistencies enwrapped in the official nationalist historical claims. With this there arose the urge to look into the historical roles of some of the most prominent political figures of pre-partition era. Thus while on the one hand Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Ambedkar, etc, came under new searchlights, on the other, Jinnah’s role was revisited with fresh and objective outlook. The new versions were also subjected to questions and historians have since been involved in responding to points raised by each other.
The black hole existence and formation have been an unsettled debate, from inception, inviting the attention to look into the matter closely. Despite myriads of evidences for existence, the mathematical possibility of black hole-from Schwarzschild anticipation till the completion of physical structure- continues to be contested among theorists. Various aspects of mathematics involved in theoretical creation of black hole are exposed to question. Also, black holes' overwhelmingly capricious physical nature adds to curiosity of opponents to challenge the underlying theory as doubtful because of its being source of astounding outcomes. In this investigation we aimed at highlighting the conceptual elements in mathematics of black holes that breed the controversy. The reasons that permit the divided view over single physical entity are required to be pointed out in order to bring betterment into the way we run our mathematical investigation. The reasoning supports possibility of creation and existence of black holes along with physical and experimental evidences, would not be undermined here in order to restrict the investigation at finding the prime responsible elements in mathematical track that have potential to bring forth living disputes. The mathematical assumptions that serve as authentication to employ certain mathematical procedure to discuss formation of black holes and the role of mathematics in forming its intuition will be investigated conceptually and possibly philosophically, to reveal the anomalies: yet many other schemes and arguments may exist. This discussion is not aimed at disapproving the existence of black hole but the basic purpose is to reveal how Black Hole's mathematics remains controversial despite assumed evidence for existence