Evaluating the Financial Performances of the Publicly Held Healthcare Companies in Crisis Periods in Türkiye.

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the financial performances of the publicly held healthcare companies in crisis periods in Türkiye. The 2018 economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic crisis were included in the study as the crisis periods. We collected the financial data of the publicly held healthcare companies and calculated three liquidity, three turnover, three leverage and three profitability ratios through ratio analysis to use as financial performance indicators. We then conducted Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and we performed separate analyses for the 2018 economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The results of the analyses showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the publicly held healthcare companies' liquidity, turnover, leverage, profitability ratios and thus their financial performances before the crises and after the crises. While the results are reassuring and give valuable insights to managers and policy makers to determine the areas that needs to be strengthened to be better prepared for possible future crises, our sample was limited. Therefore, this study presents an exploratory foundation for future studies which are needed to make a case for financial stability for the publicly held healthcare companies before and after the crisis periods.