Silvia Trifonova
ESTIMATION OF THE FACTOR IMPACT OF INDEBTEDNESS AND SOLVENCY ON ENTERPRISES EFFICIENCY
Summary:
The main objective of this study is to research and estimate the impact of indebtedness and solvency on the efficiency of enterprises, first within a theoretical and methodological context, and second, by applying a profound empirical analysis on leading Bulgarian enterprises.
The motivation for this scientific research is associated with the fact that the efficiency (return, profitability) is a complex economic category, and its value depends on a number of economic factors. The research thesis is that indebtedness and solvency are important factors, impacting the efficiency of Bulgarian enterprises in a time of financial and economic crisis.
The applied author’s methodology is based on a profound empirical research, comprising two key components: first, an analysis of the separate individual indicators – efficiency, indebtedness and solvency of companies, without studying their interconnectedness, e.g. as relatively separate categories, and second, an analysis of the resulting bilateral trade-offs between the efficiency, indebtedness and solvency of enterprises, e.g. examining the following three relationships: „efficiency – indebtedness”, „efficiency – solvency” and „in¬debtedness – solvency”.
In order to achieve greater economic reliability in the current research, 50 leading enterprises in Bulgaria from different economic sectors are included in the study. The reviewed period is three years (2007-2009) during the global financial and economic crisis. As far as the structure of the study is concerned, first, the essence of risk and financial risk in particular is revealed, as well as their quantitative estimations and influence on the financial state-ment of enterprises. Second, the study analyzes extensively the peculiarities of the assessment of financial indebtedness and solvency of enterprises, which serves as a basis for the further parallel estimations of the bilateral trade-offs: „efficiency – indebtedness”, „efficiency – solvency” and „indebt-edness – solvency”. Finally, a detailed study is made on the developments in efficiency under the influence of indebtedness and solvency of the examined Bulgarian enterprises. The study concludes with summarizing the results ob-tained from the profound empirical research.
The main conclusions from the empirical study are the following: 1) During the period 2007-2009 there is a small number of Bulgarian enterprises, which are distinguished by a high efficiency on the invested capital ratio. Many companies have a normal efficiency ratio, but those with a low efficiency ratio make up almost ¾. 2) According to the degree of indebtedness, the Bulgarian practice shows that there is a seriously deteriorated financial statement of those enterprises that have structural importance for the national economy. ¾ of those companies have an unfavourable „debt – equity” ratio level. 3) The solvency ratio of the investigated Bulgarian enterprises tends to shift from high and satisfactory solvency levels towards a low solvency level. However, there is certain ambition in some companies to be mindful of their solvency issues during the financial and economic crisis, so as to prevent themselves from declaring bankruptcy. This is proved by the fact that almost ½ of the reviewed enterprises are characterized by a high solvency ratio. 4) During the period 2007-2009 the observed highest impact of the heavy in¬debtedness ratio (60%) is determinant of the low efficiency on the invested capital of the reviewed 50 enterprises in Bulgaria. The impact of the low (26%) indebtedness ratio is lower and it shows in what directions the efforts should be concentrated with a view to increase the overall corporate efficiency.
