Estratégias financeiras em situação de turnaround: um estudo das empresas listadas na B3 que passaram por recuperação de rentabilidade

Abstract

The objective of this research was to investigate which financial strategies of efficiency (containment of expenses, downsizing, reduction of assets and internal investments) and of corporate reorientation (reduction or expansion of the size of the business) that contributed to the success of the profitability recovery cases of companies in a turnaround situation, listed on B3 in the period from 2014 to 2018. A sample was formed, through the analysis of publicly traded companies included in B3, with shares traded on the national market in the period from 2014 to 2018 (no participants from the financial and public utility sectors), with the publication of financial information available in all years in the surveyed period and history of decline in the years 2015 and 2016. The present study was characterized as quantitative and descriptive. With regard to obtaining the data, the work was developed as documentary research, where the B3 portal was used to collect the data disclosed in the financial statements and management report. The solvency examination showed 19 companies (after excluding an equity organization) listed on B3 with solvency behavior classifiable in the context of a declining situation and the landing of 4 of them with imminent insolvency (leaving Z'Score <1, 23). The Mann-Whitney U test was instrumentalized, with significance set at p-value <0.05, which resulted in the statistical choice of 8 variables among those included in the total, which are linked to strategic focuses: oriented to efficiency and business reorientation, and evaluated from the perspectives: company, economic sector and listing segment. Regarding the results obtained in the analysis of the variables, all the expected relationships were confirmed, conferring the presence of strategic financial direction in accordance with the strategic focuses investigated, an event that strengthens the financial bias of the successful cases of recovery of the previous verified profitability. Regarding the assessment by sector and the follow-up of the list, the equitable division of the successful cases of recovery between sectors was evident: industrial goods and cyclical consumption, as well as the location of most cases in the traditional segment. The findings were also compared with the information published by the companies, which resulted in a robust framework of combinations between the tested perspectives, the relationships found, the strategic focuses worked on and the events described in the management reports of the turnaround companies. Therefore, it is plausible to admit the understanding that, economic environments in recession, tend to be more conducive to the use of frequent financial strategies in a turnaround situation, especially those oriented to efficiency and corporate reorientation, and such strategies may appear as an important resource of accommodation for organizations inserted in unstable economic environments, with the possibility of serving as guidance for planning, control and financial analysis instruments, among other artifacts of corporate management.