Effect of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on financial performance of businesses: Borsa İstanbul (BIST) implementation

Unlike previous pandemics, the Covid-19 pandemic turned into a pandemic in a very short time, turning into a multidimensional global crisis that deeply affected the global economy and financial markets as well as public health. As a part of the global economy, the Turkish economy and financial markets have also been deeply affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The aim of this study is to reveal how Covid-19 is effective on the financial performances of manufacturing industry enterprises traded in Borsa Istanbul (BIST) and what consequences it has on the financial performances of businesses. In order to be used in the study, 104 manufacturing industry enterprises that are traded on the BIST and whose data can be accessed regularly were selected and the financial data of these enterprises for the period 2019-2020 were used. As the dependent variable; return on assets ratio, return on equity ratio, net profit margin and operating profit margin are used. Also, as an independent variable; business size, liquidity ratio and tangible assets were used. It has been examined whether the dependent and independent variables change depending on the ratio of foreign sales within the total sales of the enterprises. In this direction, Panel Data Analysis method was used in the study. According to this study, it has been concluded that the negative effect of the Covid19 pandemic on the profitability of the enterprises is felt more in the enterprises with high sales rates, and the negative effect on the return on equity is more in the enterprises with a low share of exports in total sales than in enterprises with a high export share. It has been observed that the negative effect on the net profit margin of the enterprise is more than the enterprises with low export share. At the same time, it has been concluded that the negative effect on the operating profit margin of the enterprises whose foreign (export) sales are higher than their domestic sales in their total sales is more than the enterprises with a low export share compared to their total sales. Keywords: Financial performance, Covid-19, crisis, manufacturing industry, Borsa İstanbul (BIST).