Corporate governance ratings and the performance of listed companies in Poland

Abstract

Recent ratings of corporate governance for the companies listed on Warsaw Stock Exchange are presented: the Polish Corporate Governance Forum (PFCG) ratings and Polish Institute of Directors (PID) ratings. The association between PFCG and PID ratings, measured by the rank correlation coefficient, is significant for the years 2004 and 2005 with the indication of stronger association for 2005 than for 2004. This may mean that rating criteria and the assessment methods for the two ratings are converging. It can also be confirmed that PID ratings are more stable and more rigid in assessing the corporate governance level in Polish listed companies. Results of the attempt to find out the relationship between the financial performance of companies and their ratings are mixed and disappointing. The representative ordered logit models for explaining the rating level of companies in terms of financial indicator variables have been estimated, with reasonable interpretation and, as expected, poor ex post forecast accuracy. The inconclusive results are mainly due to small sample sizes and the heterogeneity of samples. It is also possible that currently, and probably temporarily, Poland does not experience significant connection between the corporate governance level and the financial performance of companies listed on Warsaw Stock Exchange.