Impacto del Covid-19 en la relación entre la estructura de capital y la rentabilidad de las grandes industrias de fabricación de papel en Guayaquil.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to show that the capital structure had a significant impact, in the context of the pandemic, on the business profitability of Guayaquil companies considered large and operating in the paper and paper products manufacturing industry. In this investigation it was identified that the main factors that determine the capital structure are the debt ratio, tangibility of assets and the level of sales. In addition, the factors that determine profitability were market concentration, capitalization level, the level of sales, ROA, and ROE. Based on the results found after a documentary review obtained from secondary official sources such as the SCVS, it was determined that the main business indicators of Guayaquil companies considered large were deeply affected by the pandemic. Specifically, the return on its assets went from 3.9% to -2.2%, and the return on equity went from 8.4% to -4.1%. It should be noted that the negative effect on these indicators was worse if the total number of companies of this industry is considered. On the other hand, it can be pointed out that based on the results obtained, it can be asserted that there was a very strong indirect relationship between the capital structure and business profitability (Pearson's correlation coefficient -86.9% with ROA and -87.4% with ROE). In this sense, there was a statistical significance given that the p-value was less than the alpha value of 0.05.