Corporate Governance as an Institutional Basis for the Financial Transformation of Agricultural Companies in the Process of Entering International Capital Markets

The transformation of international capital markets under the influence of the concept of sustainable development changes the criteria for investment attractiveness. It reorients investors’ attention toward long-term value creation, accounting for economic, environmental, and management factors. Therefore, alongside financial data, non-financial indicators reflecting the quality of corporate governance are becoming increasingly important. This article aims to scientifically substantiate the role of corporate governance as an institutional basis for the formation and integration of economic, environmental, financial, and non-financial indicators in the process of financial transformation of agricultural companies as they enter international capital markets. The methodological basis of the study is the institutional approach, systemic and comparative analysis, and logical-structural modeling. The authors assessed the institutional maturity of corporate governance using expert analysis across five criteria: the presence of independent directors, the functioning of the audit committee, the level of disclosure of financial and non-financial information, the presence of ESG or integrated reporting, and access to international financial instruments. The empirical base was built on data from public financial and non-financial reporting of Ukrainian agricultural companies whose shares are listed on the London and Warsaw Stock Exchanges. As a result of the study, an institutional model of the financial transformation of an agricultural company was proposed, which reflects the cause-and-effect relationship between the quality of corporate governance, the integration of financial and ESG indicators, the reduction of information asymmetry, the minimization of the risk premium, and the growth of the company’s value. The results of the study indicate that the level of institutional maturity of corporate governance directly affects the depth of integration of non-financial indicators and companies’ ability to attract international capital. The practical significance of the results lies in the possibility of using the proposed model to assess the institutional capacity of agricultural enterprises in the process of integration into international capital markets and the formation of their long-term value.