Covid-19 : effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on publicly listed firms in Iceland

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine the effect the Covid-19 pandemic had on listed firms here in Iceland and in Denmark, Sweden and Finland. The firms were also divided into eight sectors according to their operations. The selected ratios to find out the effects are: current ratio, debt ratio, cash ratio, return on equity, net debt to EBITDA, earnings per share and EBIT margin. The ratios were measured from an average of 2017 to 2019 and 2020, annually. The results show that the firms and sectors were all affected from the calculations of the selected ratios. The ratio that showed the biggest change between years was return on equity. This research contributed the results of the impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on listed firms in Iceland since it started as there has not been many studies conducted on this subject so far.