Corporate governance and dividend policy: A study of listed hotels and restaurant companies in Sri Lanka

The aim of this study is to find out the linkages between corporate governance variables and dividend payout of hotels and restaurant companies in Sri Lanka.

The investigation is performed for a sample of 17 companies listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange during 2008–2012.

The results suggest that only CEO duality is negatively related to dividend payout whereas board size; board independence; return on assets and debt-to-total assets do not appear to be significantly related to the dividend payout.

Findings should help corporate governors to pay more attention on designing effective dividend policy to maximize share holders’ wealth.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the linkages between corporate governance and dividend payout of hotels and restaurant companies in Sri Lanka.