Impact of Working Capital Management on Firm’s Profitability: A Study on Listed Companies in Sri Lanka

Aims: The main aim of the study is to identify whether working capital management has an impact on firm’s profitability of listed companies in Sri Lanka.

Place and Duration of Study: Pooled panel data of 95 listed companies from 18 sectors are listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) which comprised of 475 observations is used during the period of 2012/2013 to 2016/2017.

Methodology: Descriptive statistics, Pearson’s Correlation analysis, ANOVA, and Pooled Regression analysis were employed as measures of analysis. Working capital management components and working capital policies are used as independent variables which comprised of number of days of account receivable (DAR), number of days of inventories (DI), number of days of account payables (DAP), cash conversion cycle (CCC), working capital investment policies (WCIP), and working capital financing policies (WCFP). Current ratio (CR), firm size (SIZE), sales growth (GROWTH), and Debt ratio (DR) were employed as controlled variables. Gross operating profit (GOP) and Return on assets (ROA) were used as dependent variable.

Results: In the descriptive statistics, average of DAR, DI, DAP, and CCC are 64, 63, 97, and 29 days respectively. The average WCIP and WCFP are indicated as 40% and 27% of total assets. For control variables, the average CR, SIZE, GROWTH, and DR are indicated as 2.27, 14.50, 33% and 40%. In the Pearson correlation analysis, CCC has negative relationship with GOP and ROA. With regard to WCIP and WCFP, there are negative significant relationships with GOP and ROA. Regression analysis states that working capital management significantly impacts on firm’s profitability of listed companies in Sri Lanka.

Conclusion: These findings would be useful to consider on maintaining optimal working capital management components and policies to avoid corporate collapse and to maximize firm’s profitability.