Cost of credit and profitability of large industrial firms in Ukraine

Abstract

Lending in Ukraine is usually studied from the creditor’s perspective, and based on the macroeconomic-level data, due to statistics availability. This potentially leaves out the problems that exist on microeconomic level, and leads to one-sided conclusions regarding, for instance, justification for certain levels of cost of credit based exclusively on minimal required profitability. In order to complement these conclusions, it is expedient to use microeconomic data-based analysis performed on a representative selection of firms, and thus the aim of this study is to evaluate credit availability for large firms in Ukraine in 2006-2020. Within the framework of the designated aim, liabilities structure, expected costs of financial resources, both credit and equity-based, have been analyzed for a selection of firms, and then compared to their respective profitability ratios. The main conclusion is that an average large industrial firm in Ukraine in 2006-2020 was not profitable enough to attract either loans or investments on market terms, and it is unlikely the situation has changed now. Individual firms, mainly of agricultural, mining, mechanical engineering, food and trade industries, are the exception to this rule. The reason for this is abnormally high profitability volatility, and in many cases – loss-making of large industrial firms, which in turn raise their risks (and thus the cost of financial resources for them); in other words, an average industrial firm has to pay elevated cost for credit due to its low creditworthiness. The practical conclusion is that the average large industrial firm in Ukraine is maladapted to market-based economy, and thus they should not be the centerpiece for planning of an economic development policy. Due to the tendency of such firms to bias any form of aggregated statistics in their favor, it is advisable to exclude them altogether, and aim to use representative selections based on medium and small firms instead. In particular, such approach must be used for aggregation of industry-specific capital structure, as well as for evaluation of costs of credit, equity and of their underlying risks. This would allow for setting a better scale in estimation of costs of financial resources.