The impact of Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment on the financial performance of companies listed on the JSE

Abstract

This research is aimed at finding empirical evidence to support the relationship between Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) compliance and the financial performance of South African companies on the JSE. An independent measure of the BEE score was obtained from the Empowerdex Top Empowerment Companies (TEC) ranking from 2004 to 2009. 14 sectors on the JSE were selected to ensure inclusion of all major industries in South Africa. A total of 209 companies were selected, and the multivariate exploratory technique of Cluster Analysis was used. The predictor variable of the company’s BEE status was then compared to a number of financial performance indicators such as annual share price, price-tobook value ratio and the price-to-earnings ratio (i.e. the outcome variables). By standardising the variables of the BEE score and using Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR), the k-means Clustering method yielded four interpretable clusters with 15, 64, 95 and 35 companies respectively. The finding indicate that only in the case of the cluster of companies that increased it’s BEE score, were all three profitability measures significantly different and, according to the means, in the direction of higher profitability. However, there were no significant differences in the results to support the proposition that low-BEE scores of companies had a negative impact on their profitability and their firm’s value over time.