EQUITY ISSUANCE AND CORPORATE DIVIDEND POLICY IN EMERGING ECONOMY CONTEXT

This article explores links between the size of a company, industrial sector in which a company operates, concentration of capital, size of business and emission and dividend policy in the Ukrainian corporate sector. Guided by insights from the bird-in-hand theory, clientele theory, signaling theory, and agency theory, we justify factors that determine the choice of shares’ placement by Ukrainian public joint stock companies and forming of their dividend policy related to the current operating conditions of the Ukrainian corporate sector. Using mathematical approach of tree classification construction in the form of random forest algorithm, we found out that maximization of the share capital value, that is involved in shares issuance of Ukrainian PJSCs, is not a priority for owners of corporate rights. 86.1 per cent of companies have selected private placements of shares. In the non-financial sector, 87.5 per cent of companies opted private placements. The study revealed also only a small share (3.5%) of Ukrainian joint stock companies paid dividends to shareholders. However, the dividend policy of Ukrainian joint stock companies changed when they listed their shares on foreign stock markets. In this case two thirds of explored firms paid dividends.