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Recent economic changes facilitated the Steel sector to ignore the Reserve quotation for PSU to get a wave from mandatory. The six major role players in Indian steel sector equally qualified to world class iron makers out of 36 in the world. In 2018, steel utility was about to grow at the rate of 5.7% year-on-year 9.2% Metric Tons. Our country anticipated to beat Japan to predominant in iron production at the earliest. But, few iron PSUs in India still struggle to sustain with Industry growth. With this aim, the financial performances of seven selected PSU companies are predicted through Altman’s Z- score.

This paper measures the financial strength of the People’s Bank of China from the perspective of balance sheets, and then examine empirically whether its financial strength influences its policy commitments given its financial conditions. The econometric results suggest that, first, the financial strength of the People’s Bank of China does affect its policy performance, although the effects are weak and overall results lack robustness with respect to the econometric technique and the choice of alternative measures of financial strength. Second, alternative financial strength indicator plays different role in helping the People’s Bank of China achieve its alternative policy objectives. Therefore, maintaining benign financial conditions and a resilient balance sheet are necessary pre-conditions for the People’s Bank of China to achieve desirable policy outcomes. Third, the People’s Bank of China’s current standalone finance is healthy under our stressing tests, despite certain concerns attained.

The main motivation of this study is to forecast the performance of Indian banks using multiple regression analysis and artificial neural network and to compare these two methods for the accuracy. To achieve this goal, financial data spread over 10 years from 2010 to 2019 was collected from 19 Indian public sector banks. The data consists of 17 financial ratios collected from financial statements and other publications of the sample organizations. Capital Adequacy Ratio (CRAR) has been chosen as dependent variable for measuring and predicting the financial strength of banks. Identification of significant ratios that are determinants of CRAR are identified by using regression technique then these identified ratios are used as input for a developing a neural network model. The findings of multi-linear regression analysis identified 7 financial ratios that have a positive relationship between with dependent variable (CRAR). These 7 dependent variables were used to predict the financial strength (CRAR) of the Banks. Then a feed forward back propagation neural network was developed with these 7 dependent variables to predict the CRAR. Finally, the performances of these two methods were measured by using the Mean Square Error (MSE), Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) and Mean Absolute Percent Error (MAPE). The results indicate that ANN model scores an improvement of 55.67% in MSE over regression model. In RMSE which re-scales the errors in order to keep the errors’ dimension as the predicted value, ANN model scores an improvement of 33.425% over regression model. It also indicates that ANN model scores an improvement of 99.32% over regression model in MAPE which measures the magnitude of absolute errors in relative terms. Results show that ANN model outperforms the regression model and is superior technique of forecasting CRAR of Indian Banks.

Globally, disruptions driven by technological advancements are visible in the form of unicorns and declining lifespan of the index constituents. Sectors such as information technology, financial services, energy, consumer goods and automobile are found to be more prone to disruptive innovation. Assessing the financial strength of the incumbents is crucial to assess their strength to endure disruption. We construct a fundamental strength index (FSI) using 11 financial performance measures covering 7 key attributes, namely profitability, efficiency, solvency, liquidity, net investments, pursuance of innovation and entry barriers, over the 5-year period 2014–2019. FSI helps in categorizing stocks of National Stock Exchange (NSE) 200 universe as ‘A’ being the fundamentally strongest and ‘C’ being the weakest. Potential crossovers can take place between ‘C’ category stock in Nifty 50 (Next 50) and ‘A’ category stock belonging to the Next 50 (Nifty Midcap 100). The results show that the disruptor’s portfolio (Next 50 stocks) outperforms the incumbent’s portfolio (Nifty 50 constituents) with a return of 1.61 per cent vs 0.47 per cent. A similar observation holds true for the Next 50 and Nifty Midcap 100, with the disruptor’s portfolio surpassing the incumbent’s portfolio (return of 2.59% vs 0.44%). The study has significant implications for the policymakers, investors, companies and academicians.

While earlier studies have focused excessively on bankruptcy prediction of banks, this study classifies banks based on their financial strength from the perspective of retail depositors who currently do not have an authentic guiding framework that helps them identify banks with higher risk profiles. Using machine learning techniques, we classify 44 Indian banks into distinct categories of financial health based on 12-year data from 2005 to 2017. We first use unsupervised learning to identify a pattern leading to logical groups in terms of financial health and then move to supervised learning for prediction. Using linear discriminant analysis (LDA), Classification and Regression Tree (CART) and Random Forest methods, we predict the cluster membership with the associated explanatory power alongside. We also compare our classification with the credit ratings awarded by rating agencies and highlight certain discrepancies that exist between what is predicted by our models and the credit rating awards. JEL Codes: C53; M10

We find that mergers and acquisitions (M&As) occurring after the 2007–2009 financial crisis were significantly more value enhancing than precrisis M&As, in both the short and long term. This superior postcrisis performance can be attributed to an increase in external financing constraints following the crisis that caused a decline in general financing availability. This decline restricted the universe of potential acquiring firms to those that were less financially constrained, whereas the typical postcrisis target firm was more financially constrained. As a result, postcrisis acquirers were able to obtain targets at more attractive prices relative to their intrinsic value during the precrisis period when external financing was much less constrained. We also find that the typical postcrisis acquirer had greater long‐term focus than their precrisis counterparts, and used their financial strength to capitalize on strategic opportunities.

Indian banking sector has played a seminal role in supporting economic growth in India. Recently, Indian banks are experiencing consistent increase in non-performing assets (NPA). The financial strength of any bank depends upon the performance of its own assets. The degradation in the assets quality results in accretion of non-performing assets. The public sector banks in India have started to show decline in profits and even losses in their financial results because of piling up of bad assets and the performance of any bank’s loans depends upon the progress of the operating economy. The private banks work for profit with high priority. The foreign banks do limited business like credit card facilities. Bank specific parameters are unique for each bank, whereas the macro parameters are common for all the banks. Keywords: Non-performing assets, Bad assets, Macro parameters, Trend.

We investigate the determinants of financial performance of UK insurance companies based on their financial strength ratings. We use data from the A.M. Best Insurance for 49 UK insurers for 2006–2009. Our findings show that profitability, liquidity, size and organisational form are the significant determinants that affect financial performance of insurance companies in the UK. We recommend an effective, alternative variable to more effectively measure the size of an insurance company, which is based on the gross premium written. We find that gross premium written is more appropriate for measuring company size in the insurance industry.

Financial resources are the subject of a common system of financial management of the company, one ofwhose tasks is to take decisions on the aggregate formation and functioning of the optimal structure of financial resources in order to increase and maximize the profits of the enterprise. To some extent, the financial potential of acting as a lever, which forms the mechanism of dynamic transformation of resources as a result of the company. Equally important is its role in the reproductive processes of the enterprise.

This study seeks to construct a financial safety index (FSI) for Nigeria. FSI is important for early detection of financial stress and ensures that the financial system is better positioned to reduce the likelihood of financial crisis and negative outcomes on real economic activities. It has capacity to guide policies that are likely to ensure the safety of financial system as well as those that are likely to distort the system. It also has ability of providing support for policy on external economic factors that can affect a country’s financial system. Hence, the developed index incorporates factors that have made significant impacts on Nigeria’s financial system in recent years. It is estimated using principal component analysis (PCA) and some major incidents of systemic pressure were identified from the constructed FSI. The constructed FSI was able to largely capture key macroeconomic trends and developments that shaped the financial industry within the study period. This confirms the relevance of the indicators selected for building the index and implies that the selected indicators played critical roles in the determination of Nigeria’s financial safety. Therefore, the index would assist both the fiscal and monetary policymakers in taking preventive measures against financial instability.

We argue that bank holding companies (BHCs) extend shadow insurance to the prime institutional money market funds (PI-MMFs) they sponsor and that PI-MMFs price this shadow insurance by charging investors significantly higher expense ratios and paying lower net yields. We provide evidence that after September 2008, expense ratios at BHC-sponsored PI-MMFs increased more than at non-BHC-sponsored PI-MMFs. Despite higher expense ratios, BHC-sponsored PI-MMFs did not experience larger redemptions than non-BHC-sponsored PI-MMFs. In addition, we show that expense ratios increased with BHCs’ financial strength and the likelihood of their support; however, this expense ratio differential disappeared after the 2016 MMF reform. (JEL G2, G21, G23, G28, H12, H81)

Small and medium-sized enterprises are an indispensable part of my country's national economic structure. They are of great significance to the stable and sustainable development of my country's economy, and are gradually becoming the main force in the development of social productive forces. In recent years, many high-tech SMEs have risen rapidly, which has played a role in optimizing my country's economic structure. However, small and medium-sized enterprises have weak financial strength, poor anti-risk ability, and low creditworthiness. This makes banks more inclined to invest funds in large enterprises, and are not very enthusiastic about lending to small and medium-sized enterprises.

Purpose This paper aims to discuss the mediating effects of innovation on the relationship between knowledge management and firm competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from small construction firms in the Eastern Region of Peninsular Malaysia. Out of the 190 construction firms surveyed, 153 (80.5%) respondents returned their completed questionnaire. These were used for data analysis. The data were then analyzed using the covariance-based structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings Knowledge management had a direct and significant positive effect on firm competitiveness. Nonetheless, the effect of knowledge management on firm competitiveness was mediated by innovation. This indicates that knowledge management should be supported by technical and administrative innovations in the firm. Research limitations/implications The data collected were from a limited sample of construction firms. In addition, conducting a study on a region of Malaysia may limit the generalizability of the model. Practical implications While knowledge management is crucial for a firm’s competitiveness, technical and administrative innovations must be concurrently improved for a stronger firm competitiveness. This is especially true in terms of financial strength and core competence. Originality/value This paper provides some empirical evidence that technical and administrative innovations fully mediated the relationship between knowledge management and firm competitiveness. The results consolidate the resource-based view on the importance of internal resource and capability of the firm and improve KM research area. It also strengthens the view that KM is a critical factor for firm competitiveness, but a good KM without strong innovation will not increase the competitiveness of small construction firms.

This paper examines whether the choice of bank loan diversification and market concentration are associated with a bank's financial stability. This study also investigates how the effect of loan diversification on bank stability varies depending on the level of the concentration or the competitiveness of the banking market. We find that increased loan diversification has a positive impact on the bank's financial strength. We show that market concentration is negatively associated with bank insolvency risk, consistent with the “concentration-stability” view. The results using interaction terms between loan portfolio diversification and market concentration indicate that diversifying banks operating in highly concentrated markets are more financially stable compared to those in less concentrated markets.

The main objective of this paper is to define the repositioning strategy of the Port of Adria, which is the leading container maritime port of Montenegro. The strategy is an integral reflection of the analysis of internal (competitive advantage and financial strength) and external (the potential of container maritime port industry and environmental stability) repositioning criteria. The case study in this paper is mainly accomplished through the definition of specific propositions that clarify the connections between these criteria and the repositioning strategy. Knowledge and attitudes of stakeholders are used with the purpose of modeling a marketing strategy, which is based on an inductive study. The paper proposes a model based on a specific maritime port case which can be applied to any other case of maritime port repositioning as well.

Self‐help groups (SHGs) are formed to work for increased income through collective effort and use of banking facilities by initiating some income‐generating activities taking advantage of the financial strength of a group. Taking into consideration the significance of SHGs to economic growth, the present study analyzes and compares the management of the income‐generating activities of SHGs in rural and urban areas. It also explores the extent of resource mobilization through various income‐generating activities, and the constraints faced by the SHGs while undertaking these activities. It is an exploratory research in which a multi‐stage stratified cluster random sampling technique was used for the selection of SHGs. Data were collected at group level and member level through purposely developed interview schedules and focused group discussions. The study revealed that, because of various financial and marketing‐related problems occurring while initiating and conducting the activities, very few SHG members actually started new income‐generating activities. Testing of hypotheses indicated that SHGs do not fulfil all the requirements of income‐generating activities carried out by its members. An overall low to medium level of resource mobilization by a majority of the SHGs presented a poor picture of SHGs in generating resources for undertaking entrepreneurial activities.

The article presents the results of research of separate aspects of the process of complex assessment of the strategic management level of the enterprise innovative development on the basis of the methodology of multi-purpose analysis of the situations of making managerial decisions in conditions of uncertainty, conflict and risk. An appropriate system of generalized and partial indicators of the functioning of the enterprise, which influence the level of its innovation development, is formed. It includes: 1) a subsystem of the indicators of a generalized assessment of the state of organizational, technical and economic development of the enterprise; 2) a subsystem of effective quality indicators for assessing the level of strategic management of innovative development of the enterprise. In order to carry out the analysis of the factors impact on the results of the innovation activity of the enterprise, a modified aggregate rating criterion is chosen. It is based on the average geometric value of the detailed indicators. The above-mentioned facts allow obtaining integrated assessments of the level of strategic management of innovative development of the enterprise by reducing the negative impact of the levelling of individual indicators, the values of which fall out of the general trend of the studied processes. It is noted that the property of taking into account the antagonism of the economic environment is inherent to the recommended for use in the process of integrated assessment of the level of strategic management of innovative development of the enterprise by the average geometric meanings of the detailed indicators that characterize the situation of making innovative decisions. Thus, to some extent, it is possible to take into account the continuous overall impact of the competitive environment of the enterprise. In order to carry out an in-depth study of assessments of the level of strategic management of innovation development and innovative activity of the enterprise as a whole, a structural diagram of construction of a functional of estimating the integral indicator of the formalized situation of making innovative decisions is formed. The basic scheme of estimation of the level of strategic management of innovation development of the enterprise is developed. According to this scheme, we have determined the key stages of the research. They are the monitoring of key partial performance indicators of an enterprise, which affect the final results of innovation activity; the assessment of the organizational and technical level of development of productive forces of the enterprise; the integral assessment of the level of security and effectiveness of strategic management of innovation activities; the integrated assessment of the level of effectiveness of strategic management of innovative development of the enterprise. The indicator "stock of financial strength" has been determined as a priority indicator in assessing the situation of the adoption of innovative solutions.

This study examines how the first major military incursions in Sarawak, Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia during the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation in 1963-1964 were reported in three selected Malaysian English-language newspapers. These newspapers are The Straits Times, published in Singapore, North Borneo News and Sabah Times (hereafter Sabah Times), published in Sabah, and The Sarawak Tribune, published in Sarawak. This study employed a qualitative content analysis of the newspapers to examine their coverage on the issue. The findings show that The Straits Times generally provided the widest coverage on the first major military incursions in Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia. Sabah Times, on the other hand, provided the most extensive news coverage on the military raid on Sabah. This was probably due to limited manpower and financial strength of the two newspapers and not the lack of concern of both newspapers and their readers of the situation in the affected localities. Keywords: Indonesia–Malaysia Confrontation, military incursions, The Straits Times, North Borneo News and Sabah Times, The Sarawak Tribune, news media coverage

The world of audiobooks represents a generative site for informing our understanding of how the future of digitally mediated creative work is being structured within the gig economy, by whom, and to what effects and affects. Audiobook narration is being structured as a form of precarious labor within today’s gig economy, and the audiobook ecosystem is opaque by design. News stories contribute to this obfuscation by keeping our focus on the overall financial strength of this industry. The contemporary moment has seen audiobooks move firmly into the mainstream commercial market, such that their sale and consumption can even be considered a ‘boom’. The beginning of today’s digital boom can be traced to 2011 when Amazon’s Audible launched its Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) digital platform, ushering in fundamental changes in audiobook production. The job of an audiobook narrator is to bring the author’s work to the audiosphere via her voice while connecting with the audience on an emotional level.

The 2019 SECURE Act provides safe harbor protections to employers who evaluate the costs of providing guaranteed income including gathering information on competing providers. Annuities can be more difficult to evaluate than mutual funds because annuity expenses can be opaque, financial strength matters, and insurer competitiveness can change over time. We find significant variation in the payout rates across providers over time. While the payout rankings of annuity companies (e.g., best to worst) are fairly sticky over the short-term, over the full period of the analysis the correlation declines effectively to zero (versus the initial rankings). This suggests individuals or institutions who choose a single annuity provider based on income payout should revisit the decision regularly to ensure the quotes are still competitive. Companies for which immediate annuities are a higher fraction of total sales tend to rank higher and remain so more persistently over time.

This study examines earnings management among financial institutions attempting to achieve a target financial strength rating. We find empirical evidence that firms with an actual rating below their target rating use income-increasing earnings management, however we find no evidence that firms above their target rating manage earnings. Our result is consistent with financial institutions facing less pressure from unions and suppliers, but more pressure from regulators, relative to non-financial institutions. Our findings are robust to a variety of alternative definitions of target rating. Notably, we examine a subset of firms with an exogenously determined target rating and find consistent results. We also find evidence that firms can influence ratings agencies, as firms that underestimate their initial claims are more likely to receive a rating upgrade.

There are not many differences in buses used for long journeys for pilgrimage purposes, with a common deluxe bus as regards to interiors. Passengers of different attitudes and comfort perceptions do differ. On inquiry to pilgrims and tour organizers in a preliminary investigation, it was noticed that sufficient attention is required to be given while designing the interiors of such public carriers but not much attention is paid so far, and no specific study was also carried out, and normal buses with need-based modifications are being used. This may be due to the lack of in-depth knowledge about vehicle design, vehicle ergonomics, etc. and the lack of sufficient financial strength of these body building companies to employ knowledgeable persons. This study aims at understanding the critical factors affecting passenger physical comfort as concerned with interior aspects of buses for long journeys. The scope of the study is limited only to the buses operating under pilgrimage activities. The survey was done to find out those factors, and the samples were taken from Vrindavan, Dwaraka and Somanatham. The pilgrims were selected based on purposive and random sampling as the target respondents were mostly senior citizens for whom the concept of comfort and fatigue is pronounced. Questionnaires and meeting observations were used to have their views on physical comfort, accessories and other facilities, seating considerations, the place for movements, etc. The study finds certain issues that appear to be vital for designing long-distance pilgrimage purpose buses.

This study was aimed to look at the trends of public primary schools performance and challenges. The national standards indicated in Education Sector Development Program V (ESDP V 2016-2020) was used to measure school performance. Primary and secondary data sources were used to meet the research targets. Three years performance reports of Primary Schools of Bench-Sheko, Kafa and Sheka Zones were examined in depths. School principals, vice principals, supervisors, district education bureau heads, and senior teachers were used as a source of data. Both quantitative and qualitative information was gathered and analyzed. A X2 test of independence model is used to see associations between the variables. The finding of the study revealed that the schools were progressing well in access. However, there are variations in access rate from district to district and from school to school. The variations were determined by the commitment of the school leadership and the extent of community engagement in school matters. The study also identified schools as an inefficient which was manifested by increasing dropout and repetition rates. Demographic pressure, financial incapability, poor students’ learning interest, poor school infrastructures, poor salary structure and incentives to keep in and attract talented teachers to the schools were identified as major challenges affecting the performance. The researchers recommends to design inclusive policy and financial reforms of primary schools with critical implementation and monitoring to come out of these vicious circles.

В статье рассматриваются вопросы финансовой безопасности предприятий черной и цветной металлургии Российской Федерации, проводится анализ согласно одной из имеющихся на сегодня эффективных методик, предлагаются выводы и сфера применения. The article is devoted to study and analysis of the financial security of Russian ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy enterprises, the analysis being conducted and interpreted according to one of the present day effective methods. A conclusion is put forward and the sphere of application is suggested.

The relevance of this research depends, on the one hand, on the high level of importance of the non-ferrous industry sector for the Russian economy, and, on the other hand, on serious threats to the stable functioning of the industry in the near future. The article analyzes the dynamics and structure of non-ferrous metal production in Russia, the dynamics of export and import volumes and price trends in view of key aluminum and copper segments. The systemic intra-industry problems and external threats to ensure the financial strength of Russian non-ferrous smelters are highlighted, the negative impact of which is reflected in the negative dynamics of the main financial and economic indicators of the copper industry enterprises - the flagship of the Russian non-ferrous industry, its most export-oriented segment. In the scope of identified intra-industry problems and external threats, including the consequences of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic infection, the authors formulated the main directions for increasing the smelters' efficiency through the introduction of digital technologies.

We examine the effect of firm credit rating downgrades on the pricing and structure of syndicated bank loans following rating downgrades in the firms’ countries of domicile. We find that the sovereign ceiling policies used by credit rating agencies create a disproportionally adverse impact on the bounded firms’ borrowing costs relative to other domestic firms following their sovereign’s rating downgrade. Moreover, the loans extended tend to be more concentrated and funded by fewer lead arrangers. Forming borrowing relationships with local- as well as foreign-banks and maintaining financial strength ameliorates bounded firms’ bank financing costs.

We study a unique experiment to examine the importance of rating agencies' private information for bank shareholders. On July 20, 2011, Fitch Ratings refined their bank standalone ratings, which measure intrinsic financial strength, from a 9-point to a 21-point scale. This refinement did not affect their all-in ratings, which combine assessments of intrinsic strength and extraordinary sovereign support and provide an estimate of banks' creditworthiness. Thus, the impact of the standalone rating refinement was cleanly limited to bank shareholders. We find evidence suggesting that the refinement resulted in higher than expected standalone ratings, but we find only weak evidence of ratings catering. We also find a positive relationship between stock price reactions and rating surprises, revealing that the rating refinement delivered useful information about the importance of bank characteristics for assessing intrinsic financial strength.

The study found that causes of payment problems in the engineering services; cash flow problems due to delays and non-payments experienced on other projects, disputes over-payment claims and responses, cash flow difficulties due to lack of initial capital, the attitude of payers, easy exit of players, and the general payment culture of the industry. Subsequent clustering of the identified factors using a factor analysis provided knowledge on key areas that industry practitioners need to focus on in mitigating payment problems within the industry. From the factor analysis, the underlying factors for payment problems are six-fold: contractual issues, financial strength of industry players, disputes between players, project characteristics, the ‘domino effect’, and others. Most of the causes of payment problems fall under the clusters: financial strengths of industry players, project characteristics, and the ‘domino effect’. It is safe to conclude that the domino effect is partly due to financial weaknesses of key construction industry players.

Статья посвящена исследованию влияния пандемии коронавируса на подходы банков к кредитованию корпоративных клиентов и компаний среднего бизнеса. Рассмотрены риски, которые понесены как субъектами хозяйствования, так и кредитными организациями в период распространения заболевания. Определены основные критерии андеррайтинга при принятии решения о выдаче кредита для клиентов среднего бизнеса согласно «риск-апетиту» банков на текущий момент времени, исходя из разработанной стратегии. На основании проведенного исследования сделаны выводы о том, что в период пандемии банки стали подходить к оценке финансового состояния компаний ещё более консервативно, опираясь на новые риски, ставшие последствиями пандемии и режима самоизоляции.