Impact of Covid-19 on companies’ performance and financial resilience: Evidence from Moroccan listed companies

Abstract

The study aims to evaluate the impact of Covid-19 on company performance and explore the moderating effect of companies’ financial resilience. Data were retrieved from 312 firm-year observations corresponding to 76 companies listed on the Moroccan Stock Exchange Market throughout 2018–2021. Five regression models are used to examine the overall impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on corporate performance, as well as the specific effect on corporate performance of each of the financial indicators of corporate resilience, namely sales, leverage, liquidity, and financial autonomy. The results show that although there is a decrease in the mean of both ratios of financial and operational performance of Moroccan listed companies, statistical tests confirm only a significant negative effect of Covid-19 on operational performance. The results also show that companies with high sales, low debt, high liquidity, and financial autonomy are more resilient to the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, given the significant size and the sectorial concentration of Moroccan listed companies, there is no statistical evidence that the negative impact of Covid-19 pandemic varies according to business sector or size. Based on the results, a number of recommendations are made for both governments and companies. Governments should maintain, despite the crisis, both public and private investment in order to sustain the growth of companies’ business sales. It is also important to implement solutions for rescheduling social and tax debts to safeguard the liquidity of companies and limit their recourse to costly debt.