Economics of the Fish Processing Industry: Applying the Beneish M-Score Model

Financial statement manipulation has been a practice since the dawn of commerce, resulting in substantial financial losses that have a significant impact on the market. Various factors can lead to such behaviour, such as economic downturns or strong competitive pressures, which affect all sectors of the economy. One of these sectors, the frozen fish industry, stands out in Galicia (Spain) because of its importance due to its strategic location, with a large number of companies integrated into this commercial sector. One of these companies, Hiperxel S.L., was one of the best known for its development and size of business, but this did not prevent it from going bankrupt in 2023, an event that the Spanish Tax Agency considers to be the result of a multi-million-euro fraud. This study analyses the likelihood of fraud committed by this company through the Beneish model and shows index results that support this theory, as a Beneish M-score of 4.137 and -1.127 was obtained in 2019 and 2021, respectively, data that confirm the possible existence of financial statement manipulation before the collapse of Hiperxel S.L.