Ownership Structure and Financial Performance of Companies Listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, Kenya

Performance of firms is predominantly contingent on the deliberate decisions cautiously made and executed by the owners therefore a linkage exists between ownership structure and performance financially. Owners are part of a segment that makes decisions by the virtue of their relationship with the firm. Therefore, the question of what maybe the most efficient ownership structure is relevant. Through the period 2014 to 2018, there was an increase in the listed firms that issued profit warnings with others like Kenya Airways and Uchumi Supermarket running into huge financial losses. This research aims at determining the relationship between structure of ownership on company’s performance financially and are anchored on two explicit objectives: to ascertain whether institutional local ownership impact on performance and to evaluate whether managerial ownership impact on performance. This exploration is built on, stewardship, Agency and stakeholder theories which expound an association of structure of ownership and performance financially of all Kenyan listed firmsthrough2014 to 2018. The examination adopts a causal research design. A census of the 60 listed firms is drawn in this study. Secondary data relating to ownership structure and return on assets is collected using secondary data collection sheet. Panel regression model is utilised to ascertain the relationship between the predictor and dependent variables. The effect of Institutional local ownership on Return on assets is significant as shown by the p values of 0.007. Managerial ownership is found to have an insignificant impact on Return on assets as shown by the p values of 0. 611.The study is recommending that in pursuit for high Return on assets firm can come up with incentives to encourage institutions to invest more in the company to raise performance.