Quality of financial growth of the largest companies in the agricultural and natural resource sector of Russia in 2021-2025: empirical analysis based on SPARK data

The paper examines the problem of assessing the quality of financial growth of the largest companies in Russia’s agricultural and natural resource sector amid structural economic transformation, changes in the external economic environment, rising cost of borrowed capital, and increasing requirements for corporate financial sustainability. The purpose of the study is to develop a methodological approach that makes it possible to assess financial growth not only through revenue expansion, but also through profitability, operating performance, changes in equity, and the state of own working capital. The empirical base of the study consists of SPARK data on 1118 active Russian companies representing 55 types of activities in the agricultural and natural resource sector for 2021–2025. The research methodology is based on comparing the dynamics of revenue, net profit, EBIT, capital and reserves, own working capital, as well as relative indicators of profitability and cost burden. This approach makes it possible to distinguish simple scale-based business growth from high-quality financial growth, in which an increase in turnover is accompanied by maintained profitability, positive operating performance, and strengthening of the company’s own financial base. The paper proposes to consider the quality of financial growth as an integral characteristic combining companies’ performance, sustainability, and reproductive potential. The practical significance of the study lies in the possibility of using the proposed approach to group companies by types of financial growth, identify organizations showing signs of extensive turnover expansion, and determine enterprises that maintain high growth quality through profitability, equity, and stable cash flow. The results obtained may be used in financial analysis of agricultural-sector companies, sectoral monitoring, investment attractiveness assessment, and the development of managerial decisions aimed at improving corporate financial sustainability.