This study looked at the impact of free cash flow and managerial ownership on agency cost, using listed conglomerates in Nigeria as study population, for the period 2007 to 2012. The study formulated three hypotheses bordering on whether free cash flow and managerial ownershipsignificantly impacts on agency cost, and whether free cash flow conditioned on high managerial ownership, has any significant impact on agency cost.
The hypotheses were tested using panel regression, while controlling for firms’ unobserved fixed effects.Consistent with theory and extant empirical evidence, this study found that Free cash flow has a significant positive impact on agency cost. Also, the study discovered no sufficient evident to conclude that managerial ownership has a significant impact on agency cost- though a negative impact exist, this is not significant, empirically. Testing the last hypothesis, the study found that the interaction between high managerial ownership and free cash flow significantly impact on agency cost.
In line with the findings, the study recommends that Conglomerate firms of Nigeria should, through their board, enact policies that will ensure avoidance of keeping free cash for the manager’s discretion so that agency costs will be minimized.
