Research on Returns Generated by Debt (Levered) and Zero Debt (Unlevered) Firms
Prashant Chhajer1, Vandana Gandhi2, Vishal Mehta3, Ayushi Agrawal4

1Prashant Chhajer, Associate Professor, Department of Management Technology, Shri Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management, Nagpur (Maharashtra), India.
2Vandana Gandhi, Assistant Professor, Department of Management Technology, Shri Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management, Nagpur (Maharashtra), India.
3Vishal Mehta, Assistant Professor, Department of Management Technology, Shri Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management, Nagpur (Maharashtra), India.
4Ayushi Agrawal, Student, Department of Management Technology, Shri Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management, Nagpur (Maharashtra), India.
Manuscript received on 19 August 2019 | Revised Manuscript received on 10 September 2019 | Manuscript Published on 17 September 2019 | PP: 1017-1020 | Volume-8 Issue-2S8 August 2019 | Retrieval Number: B10050882S819/2019©BEIESP | DOI: 10.35940/ijrte.B1005.0882S819
Open Access | Editorial and Publishing Policies | Cite | Mendeley | Indexing and Abstracting
© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Abstract: The Indian economy has changed over the last few decades and so has the thought process of investors. Today, the investors have become dynamic and are less risk averse. They are willing to experiment and put their money in hitherto less preferred avenues. This study has compared the returns generated by firms having debt in their capital structure and those not having debt in their capital structure. Theoretically, equity investors require more returns in a debt (levered) company as compared to the zero debt (unlevered) firm since they are taking more risk in leveraged companies. However, some studies in the past have found otherwise. The objective of this study is to ascertain whether leveraged companies have outperformed the zero debt companies. For the same two sample t-test is used and proves that when the times are good, the firms with low cost debt funds generate superior EPS which ultimately gets converted into higher equity returns and vice-versa.
Keywords: Leveraged, Zero Debt, Capital Structure and Annualized Returns. JEL Classification: G30, G32.
Scope of the Article: e-governance, e-Commerce, e-business, e-Learning