Strategy for optimizing the asset ownership structure of a holding company through the separation of asset and operating functions

Abstract

The article assesses the economic effectiveness of a strategy that separates asset and operating functions within holding companies as a tool to enhance financial resilience, risk manageability, and investment attractiveness; the aim is to empirically compare key financial indicators of firms before and after restructuring and to identify mechanisms of shareholder value creation. The empirical base comprises a sample of 25 large Russian holdings in industry, retail, and telecommunications for 2017–2023; methods include comparative financial analysis (ROA, ROE, D/E, liquidity), assessment of EBITDA volatility, calculation of the effective tax rate, regression modeling of the impact of restructuring on market capitalization and WACC, as well as DCF to test result robustness. The results show statistically significant improvements in fundamentals after the separation into an asset-holding company and an operating company: ROA rises by 2.53 percentage points and ROE by 4.06 percentage points; the debt-to-equity ratio declines from 1.45 to 0.91; the current ratio increases from 1.23 to 1.85; the coefficient of variation of EBITDA decreases from 21.45% to 12.80%; and the cost of capital (WACC) falls from 14.21% to 11.88%, alongside an improvement in the average credit rating from BB to BBB-. The fiscal effect is reflected in a reduction of the consolidated effective tax rate to 17.91% due to the depreciation shield and differentiated tax regimes, freeing resources for reinvestment and debt reduction. Market reaction corroborates the fundamental improvements: average market capitalization increases by 43.02% two years post-restructuring, the P/E multiple rises by 35.83%, and the volume of attracted investment by 83.12%; a strong positive association is found between the decline in D/E and the increase in P/E (r≈0.82), and an inverse one between WACC and capitalization. It is concluded that structural separation is not limited to legal formalization but shapes a manageable risk profile and transparent cash flows, thereby increasing firm value; practical recommendations include an implementation roadmap, calibration of the lease model, tax compliance, and synchronization of KPIs between the asset-holding and operating companies.