Academic Paper from the year 2021 in the subject Business economics - Banking, Stock Exchanges, Insurance, Accounting, grade: 4.5, Ahmadu Bello University, language: English, abstract: This paper analyzes the effect of financial leverage on firms’ performance. The aim was to study the implications of financial leverage on firms performances. Also considering that maximizing accounting profit and maximizing shareholders value are not identical because of shareholders losses from agency costs, it was therefore pertinent to see how capital structure affect shareholders value. The objective of the study was to identify the possible effects of financing leverage on the performance of the company, to establish the relationship between leverage and corporate performance of listed firms in Nigeria, to determine the extent to which capital structure affect shareholders returns, to determine when the shareholder’s wealth can be said to have been maximized given a particular capital structure and to analyze the debt and equity which might result in over capitalization of the firm. The research was designed to collect data through a survey method from five listed firms - Dangote Sugar Refinery, Nestle, Flour Mills, Cadbury, and Nigerian Breweries. Descriptive design (percentages) was used to explain the effect of financial leverage on company’s performance; while analytical design (correlational statistical method) was used to establish the relationship between financial leverage and corporate performance.