Effect of the economic outturn on the cost of debt of an industrial enterprise

Institute of Technology and Business, School of Expertness and Valuation, Okružní 517/10, 37001 České Budějovice, Czech Republic

^* Corresponding author: vochozka@mail.vstecb.cz

Abstract

The cost of debt is referred to as the key factor determining profitability. It is a decisive factor in decision making of the management, especially in strategy development. The purpose of this paper is to establish the relationship between the volume of debt and the economic outturn of industrial enterprises. Using artificial neural networks, the relationship between interest costs and three profit categories is examined. Data of 5622 Czech processing enterprises in the years 2015-2017 are used. Multilayer perceptron neural networks and neural networks of basic radial functions are used for processing. A total of 10,000 neural structures are generated for each cost-interest relationship and the corresponding profit, of which 5 are retained, showing the best results. The results indicate that in all cases of profit there is no dependence between the interest and the amount of profit generated. Profiting companies do not get debt cheaper than other businesses.