Accounting and Market Risk Measures of Polish Energy Companies

Abstract

Companies in the energy sector, due to their important role in the economy and the specificity of energy sources, are exposed to many types of risk, ranging from the risk associated with the company’s operations and the global economic and political situation in the world. Energy companies are usually large capital companies whose shares are listed on the stock market. The mentioned risk factors may shape the risk level of these companies. The study aims to examine the relationship between market and accounting risk measures for Polish energy companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. This paper uses market and accounting betas in the conventional and downside approach. In addition to market measures of total risk, it also examines the variability of ROA for energy companies. The study of the relationship between market risk measures and accounting risk measures was based on Pearson’s correlation coefficient, standard linear regression, and quantile regression. The relationship between market and accounting measures of total and systematic risk was identified. Moreover, quantile regressions revealed that the slope for accounting variables varies across the quantiles. Our research shows that for energy companies not listed on the capital markets, for which no market risk measures can be derived, accounting betas and downside accounting can be useful tools in risk analysis. The contribution of the article to the risk analysis of energy companies is the use of unpopular accounting beta factors and a new modification of these coefficients for downside risk.