THE FINANCIAL BENCHMARKING OF GLOBAL RAILWAY COMPANIES

The railway industry, traditionally under public ownership and management, has witnessed an increasing emphasis on performance measurement due to the commercialization, corporatization, and privatization trends over the past four decades. Most relevant studies in the performance measurement of rail companies adopt non-parametric methods like data envelopment analysis (DEA), which largely rely on operational and physical characteristics. Using an international sample of 39 railway companies from 12 countries from 4 continents, this study clusters publicly traded railway companies with respect to their financial characteristics such as capital structure management, profitability, cost efficiency, and investment management with the aim of a financial benchmarking. The findings highlight the effectiveness of cluster analysis in comparing the financial performances of rail companies and demonstrate its applicability to other sectors.