This thesis analyses changes in the indebtedness and financial vulnerability of six Slovenian non-financial firms from different industries over the period 2018–2024, which was marked by several overlapping economic shocks: the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis, and monetary tightening. The analysis combines annual financial statements with the firms' internal monthly gross trial balances and assesses their financial positions using eight groups of complementary indicators. By the end of the period, the firms' financial positions had diverged markedly. The most consistent change was an approximately twofold increase in the implicit cost of financial debt after 2022. An energy-intensive foundry, which had already been structurally vulnerable before the shocks, recorded a loss in 2024. In the other firms, higher indebtedness did not necessarily indicate financial stress: in one case it mainly reflected investment-related borrowing, while in another the indicators improved despite the increase in debt. Only a joint interpretation of the indicators makes it possible to distinguish broader economic effects from firm-specific factors. The findings should therefore be interpreted as a comparative case study.
|
