Firm Financing and Growth in the Arab Region

This paper provides a first analysis of the extent to which firms in the Arab region use capital markets to obtain financing and grow. It addresses two questions: First, how many and which firms issue equity, bonds, and syndicated loans in the Arab region? Second, how do these firms perform relative to non-issuing firms? To tackle these questions, a uniquely matched dataset of firm-level issuances and balance sheet information of 1,462 firms in the Arab region is constructed. Two main findings emerge from the analysis. (1) Over the last two decades, the amounts raised in equity, bond, and syndicated loan markets have considerably increased and been associated with an increasing number of issuing firms. (2) The typical issuing firm is larger, grows faster, is more leveraged, and holds more long-term debt relative to the typical non-issuer. Moreover, issuers seem to be initially larger than non-issuers in terms of assets, turnover, and the number of employees, and even grow faster over time. The firm size distribution of issuers lies to the right and shifts more rightwards over time compared to the distribution of non-issuers, indicating a divergence in firm size among listed firms.