Student Number: 9305986E School of Accountancy Faculty of Commerca, Law and Management / Academic and commercial interest in the corporate governance practices of publicly listed companies has increased significantly in the past five to ten years. High-profile corporate failures such as Enron and Worldcom have heightened the interest in corporate governance practices. This research study's primary aim is to explore the contribution of board structure to company performance in South Africa. The majority of prior corporate governance literature has centered and focused on the relationship between board structure and company performance where performance is measured in terms of traditional measures. This research study follows the themes of Mitchell Williams, which diverges from this prior body of literature in two primary ways; first the relationship between board structure and company performance is investigated where performance is defined by intellectual capital performance and second unlike the majority of prior literature that utilised data from the United States, data was collected and analysed from a sample of South African companies listed on the JSE Securities Exchange.

Submitted by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2018-05-17T12:04:30Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Cláudia Margareth Gomes Palhares - 2018.pdf: 1898669 bytes, checksum: b611b792f5ec8097a03a0685bb5f856e (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2018-05-17T13:07:06Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Cláudia Margareth Gomes Palhares - 2018.pdf: 1898669 bytes, checksum: b611b792f5ec8097a03a0685bb5f856e (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-17T13:07:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Cláudia Margareth Gomes Palhares - 2018.pdf: 1898669 bytes, checksum: b611b792f5ec8097a03a0685bb5f856e (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-04-16 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Using a database of 110 issues of debentures, conducted between 2011 and 2017 by companies listed on the Brazilian stock exchange, it was sought to identify factors of corporate governance of borrowers that affect the amount of financial covenants present in the debenture agreement and the restriction arising from the financial covenant "Net Financial Debt / EBITDA". For the model referring to the number of financial covenants, a regression was estimated by the Ordinary Least Squares method. The results indicate that the companies with greater concentration of ownership by the controlling shareholder, with a larger board of directors, companies belonging to sectors of economic activity of metallic minerals and information technology issued debentures with fewer financial covenants. On the other hand, debentures issued by larger companies, belonging to the leasing of vehicles and equipment and telecommunications and which issued debentures in 2011, presented a greater number of financial covenants. The second model was estimated through logistic regression and the results suggest that companies with greater concentration of ownership, greater size of the board of directors, greater independence of the board of directors, largercompanies, more leveraged and belonging to the public utility sector, were more likely to have a covenant that allows a higher level of indebtedness. The longer maturity of the debt seems to lead companies to issue debentures with a covenant "Net financial debt / EBITDA" that tolerates a lower level of indebtedness. The research provides support to the literature that internal governance mechanisms such as concentration of ownership, size and independence of the board of directors affect the amount of financial covenants and the constraint imposed by the covenant of indebtedness on contracts of debentures of companies that deal in the stock exchange Brazilian As a practical contribution, this study shows that companies issuing debentures may seek substitute mechanisms for the use and restriction of financial covenants and thus avoid the restrictions arising from these contractual clauses. / Por meio de um banco de dados de 110 emissões de debêntures, realizadas entre os anos de 2011 e 2017 por empresas listadas na bolsa brasileira, buscou-se identificar fatores da governança corporativa dos mutuários que afetam a quantidade de covenants financeiros presentes no contratode debênture e a restrição advinda do covenant financeiro “Dívida Financeira Líquida/EBITDA”. Para o modelo referente ao número de covenants financeiros, foi estimada uma regressão pelo método de Mínimos Quadrados Ordinários. Os resultados indicam que as empresas com maior concentração de propriedade por parte do acionista controlador, com um maior tamanho do conselho de administração, são pertencentes aos setores de atividade econômica de minerais metálicos e da tecnologia da informação, as quais emitiram debêntures com menos covenants financeiros. Por outro lado, as debêntures emitidas por empresas de maior porte, pertencentes ao setor de locação de veículos e equipamentos e de telecomunicações e que emitiram debêntures no ano de 2011, apresentaram um número maior de covenants financeiros. O segundo modelo foi estimado através de regressão logística, e os resultados sugerem que empresas com maior concentração de propriedade, maior tamanho do conselho de administração, maior independência do conselho de administração, empresas de maior porte, mais alavancadas e pertencentes ao setor de utilidade pública apresentaram maior propensão a ter um covenant que permita um nível maior de endividamento. Já um prazo maior de vencimento da dívida parece levar as empresas a emitir debêntures com um covenant “Dívida financeira líquida/EBITDA”, que tolera um nível de endividamento menor. A pesquisa fornece apoio à literatura de que mecanismos internos de governança, como a concentração de propriedade, o tamanho e a independência do conselho de administração, afetam a quantidade de covenants financeiros e a restrição imposta pelo covenant de endividamento em contratos de debêntures de empresas que negociam na bolsa brasileira. Como contribuição prática, este estudo mostra que as empresas emissoras de debêntures podem procurar mecanismos substitutos à utilização e à restrição de covenants financeiros e, assim, evitar as restrições decorrentes dessas cláusulas contratuais.