In accordance with the established approach, excessive receivables are a manifestation of the crisis situation with inter-company settlements whose fundamental reason is the lack of liquidity and capital in the economy. Freezing cash into receivables slows down capital flows in the economy, generates systemic risks and negatively affects the companies' investment activities. In this article, excessive receivables are defined as the excess of the share of receivables in assets over its normal level, which is typical for a particular country's model of business financing, with due regard to sector specificity. The author analyzes causes and consequences of the abnormally high amounts of recei¬vables in Ukraine. Among the reasons for excessive receivables in the assets of Ukrainian companies are low payment discipline and difficulties in recovering debts, whose manifestations include a large proportion of overdue and bad debts. The emphasis is made on slowing settlements and increasing burden of receivables in the country. Decomposition of aggregated receivables for goods, works and services based on company size shows a shift in the non-payment burden towards small and medium-sized businesses, whose manifestation is the extension of repayment terms. At the same time, more than a half of the receivables in Ukraine's companies accounts for other receivables that are not directly related to the companies' operative activities, which is one of the manifestations of business financialization. Compared to foreign countries, the above share in Ukraine is abnormally high, due to the active use of shadow loan capital schemes by companies, including the laundering of "dirty" funds and the injection of capital from offshore to support business liquidity. Solving the problem of excessive receivables requires overcoming the existing liquidity shortage in Ukraine, increasing money supply based on gradual reduction of this government debt dependence and restoring business confidence in the banking system of Ukraine. The publication is prepared for the implementation of the planned project of the Department of Finances of the Reals Sector in the Institute for Economics and Forecasting of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine: "Financial Risks of Doing Business in Ukraine: Sector of Nonfinancial Corporations" (state registration No 0118U006088).
Introduction. The main trends in the corporate finance of Ukraine hardly could be explained with the traditional corporate finance frameworks which the trading-off or pecking order approaches included. In the beginning of 2017, the whole corporate sector indebtedness (calculated as total unconsolidated debt to book value based equity ratio) was substantially higher than a proper level for emerging markets countries. The restoring of the real sector equity capital sufficiency is crucial for the whole financial system stabilization and investments fostering. Purpose. The investigation of the book value decapitalization in real sector of Ukrainian economy scale and its potential impact on the financial system stability and economic growth assessment. Methods. International comparisons of the total book value capital to GDP ratios, the real book value capital (denominated by GDP deflator) trends and structural changes investigation. Results. The volume and the dynamics of the book value capitalization in Ukrainian economy’s real sector are investigated. The overall level of capital losses is determined (18% decline with 5 years) and significant structural imbalances are revealed. The trends of real sector book value equity changes analyzed comparing with the nominal GDP changes trends in Ukraine and foreign countries. A comparative analysis trends of real sector capital return in Ukraine and some European countries is conducted. The total book value capital to GDP ratio in Ukraine does not differ significantly from other countries. We explain these results capital by the low level of GDP in Ukraine and not by the book value capital sufficiency. The low level of legal productivity the real sector aggregate equity capital in Ukraine is determined. The share of accumulated capital in real sector book value equity in Ukraine was closed to 0 and fall negative in 2017. We explain this by the low level of legal productivity of equity capital in Ukraine. Conclusion. The capital accumulation in the real sector of Ukrainian economy is structurally deteriorated and generates significant risks for the stability of ountry financial system. The lack of capital in real sector hardly can be compensated by the financial sector and government investments. Thus, we can conclude that deficiency of equity in real sector is a strong barrier for the economic growth.
The article deals with the economic essence of accounts payable. It is determined that in the process of deformations in the structure of business capital, it acquires the characteristics of a surrogate source of business financing, which in turn creates risks for the stability of Ukraine’s financial system. The authors describe the main trends in the dynamics and structure of accounts payable and define its impact on the growth of debt burden of non-financial corporations in Ukraine at the aggregate level. A comparison of the volume and growth rates of accounts payable in Ukraine and the EU countries is made, which allows to confirm the hypothesis of the introduction of a distorted model of business financing in Ukraine’s corporate sector. The authors point out that one of the reasons for the abnormally high debt dependence in the NFC sector at the aggregate level is the replacement of equity with other current liabilities (including financial loans from associated physical and legal entities), which allowed to establish such a flexible capital structure, which can help rapidly withdraw assets abroad in the event of macro-financial destabilization or other threats of capital loss related to the insecurity of property rights and the prevalence of fiscal voluntarism in Ukraine. The authors conclude that with the overload of balance sheets with short-term debts against the background of a significant reduction in equity leads to a rapid loss of financial stability. At the same time, under the influence of restrictions on activities and other concomitant barriers to doing business due to the global coronavirus pandemic, the financial depletion of the non-financial corporations sector could lead to a wave of corporate bankruptcies. It is concluded that under the influence of narrowing business access to capital in the financial market there is a rapid increase in lending to domestic business by nonresidents, which gives grounds to conclude that in this way domestic business lends itself, using funds previously withdrawn abroad. Further development of these trends not only can be a catalyst for financial imbalances at the level of individual enterprises, but can also provoke a crisis in the foreign exchange market. The authors substantiate that one of the ways to reduce the volume of current debt obligations is to assist the government in transforming the companies’ short-term liabilities into long-term ones. This can be done by converting the companies’ current liabilities into long-term bonds on a voluntary basis using simplified procedures for registration of their issue, and by registering current liabilities to suppliers (for goods and services) as long-term promissory notes.
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