## 3 Results
The region with greater contribution is Algarve, followed by Azores. Comparing the average results by regions, Algarve appears to be better off than the other regions in Portugal regarding financial sustainability of firms operating in sewerage, in the last 4 years available, since they have mean profits, liquidity, are less indebted, and are growing their activity and contribute to the country GDP. However, only one firm is operating in this region. The second region with better financial sustainability is the north. To Spain, only the regions of Asturias and Galicia (near the north of Portugal) present losses in mean (negative ROA and ROE), while firms in La Rioja are the most profitable firms. These regions are noted as the regions with fewer habitats per square kilometer, and neither are the regions with fewer firms operating in the sewerage sector. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Region** & **ROA** & **ROE** & **Current Ratio** & **Debt Ratio (\%)** & **Sales Growth (\%)** & **VAR** \\ \hline
**Panel A: Portugal** & & & & & & \\ North & 0.0724 & 0.0506 & 13.0936 & 43.4317 & 15.6082 & 0.4577 \\ Center & 0.0035 & 0.6764 & 5.6364 & 56.9456 & 25.2456 & 0.5696 \\ Lisbon & 0.0040 & \(-\)0.0900 & 2.1116 & 148.9804 & 22.7342 & 0.4591 \\ Alentejo & \(-\)0.0409 & 0.0043 & 1.8809 & 95.5831 & 28.6990 & 0.5246 \\ Algarve & 0.2320 & 0.3181 & 3.1505 & 28.4440 & 9.0255 & 0.7334 \\ Azores & \(-\)0.0192 & \(-\)0.0471 & 1.8543 & 58.5833 & \(-\)16.8320 & 0.6426 \\ Madeira & \(-\)0.7690 & 0.2966 & 1.6223 & 396.1427 & 384.3105 & \(-\)2.9957 \\ \hline
**Panel B: Spain** & & & & & & \\ Andalusia & 0.0349 & 0.0028 & 694.9780 & 78.8852 & 56.0116 & 0.4316 \\ Aragon & 0.0478 & 0.1288 & 3.1899 & 54.1764 & 17.8024 & 0.6460 \\ Asturias & \(-\)0.0292 & 0.1098 & 2.7794 & 85.6549 & \(-\)25.5770 & 0.8917 \\ Balearic Islands & 0.0775 & 0.1568 & 2.5754 & 41.2874 & 21.1083 & 0.6134 \\ Canary Islands & 0.0740 & 0.7726 & 6.5708 & 51.9404 & 9.1339 & 0.5630 \\ Cantabria & 0.0123 & 0.0325 & 1.0325 & 86.4900 & 233.5440 & 0.5571 \\ Castilla y León & 0.1002 & 0.1886 & 3.2505 & 45.1310 & 5.9182 & 0.4126 \\ Castilla-la- & 0.0184 & 0.5560 & 3.7935 & 52.8551 & 27.7006 & 0.5477 \\ Mancha & & & & & & \\ Catalonia & 0.0567 & 0.1117 & 3.5316 & 48.5604 & 23.6668 & 0.6072 \\ Valencian & & & & & & \\ community & 0.0307 & 0.9701 & 50.3990 & 45.1892 & 24.1620 & 0.5328 \\ Extremadura & 0.0278 & 0.1255 & 1.1460 & 75.4128 & 12.6013 & 0.4484 \\ Galicia & \(-\)1.1116 & \(-\)0.6765 & 2.5171 & 143.5336 & 35.8198 & 1.5440 \\ La Rioja & 0.1634 & 0.2343 & 3.4994 & 29.1874 & 12.3678 & 0.6066 \\ Madrid & 0.0740 & 0.2114 & 5.8289 & 84.2469 & 159.6429 & 0.5367 \\ Murcia & 0.0787 & \(-\)5.8853 & 4.0313 & 61.3808 & 30.1743 & 0.6547 \\ Navarra & 0.0849 & 0.1625 & 1.2908 & 74.1366 & \(-\)3.4117 & 0.5011 \\ Basque country & 0.0508 & 0.0554 & 1.8670 & 65.5071 & 6.7152 & 0.4974 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} ROA: return on assets; ROE: return on equity; VAR: value-added ratio. Source: own analysis in IBM SPSS version 27.  
\end{table} 
Table 4: Mean values for financial ratios, by NUTs II regions, 2016–2019. In mean, all regions present current assets higher to current liabilities (current ratio), being Cantabria, the region with less safety margin (but results are regarding a singular firm), and Andalusia (the second region more representative in the Spanish sample) the region with the highest one. Firms in Galicia are highly indebted since liabilities are not only to cover total assets as well as negative equity. This region not only presents the smallest profitability but also higher levels of leverage, which are signs of financial problems. On another side, La Rioja has the more profitable firms and is less indebted. Only in Asturias and Navarra, firms have difficulties growing annually, while in Cantabria, the firm's annual growth is higher than 233%, but there is only a firm in this region, which is a young firm, which justifies this finding.