A study of the relationship between capital structure and fishery enter-prises performance

Using published financial statements from large and medium-sized fishery organizations in Primorsky Krai, we analyzed their capital structure and the balance between equity and debt financing. Organizations were grouped by the share of equity in their funding sources, revealing the key parameters of their capital structure – the degree of reliance on equity or debt and, consequently, the ability to generate financial stability and operational efficiency. It was concluded that the capital structure is characterized by a high debt burden, with a persistent concentration of organizations in groups with low equity or negative equity. There was no positive trend toward shifting enterprises toward the group with a high share of equity, demonstrating the absence of a downward trend in debt burden. An analysis of the performance indicators of organizations grouped by the share of equity in total capital revealed that there is no consistent improvement in efficiency as financial autonomy increases. According to the Pearson correlation coefficient, a direct, significant relationship between capital structure is observed only with return on total capital; the Spearman correlation showed a strong, monotonic relationship between them. The relationship with other performance indicators (current assets, non-current assets, equity, sales) is moderate to weak. It is proved that high organizational autonomy does not always correlate closely with efficiency. Such a relationship reinforces the importance of wise capital investment, not just capital accumulation.