Flash Eurobarometer 184 (Access to Finance Among Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in the New Member States)

Opinion of company decision-makers on the issue of financing.<br>Topics: development of the company’s situation in the last year regarding: turnover, profit, profit margin, level of debt, cash flow, investment, level of exports, research and development, market share; existence of a development plan for the next three years; most important element to ensure the company’s development: better qualified people on the market, social and fiscal regulations more suited to the sector of activity, greater production capacity, easy access to means of financing, stricter regulation regarding competition from outside the EU, advice and support service for the development of the company; use of selected types of financing in the past: overdraft, leasing or renting, discount or factoring, increase in capital dedicated to venture capital funds or to private individuals, loans shorter or longer than a 3-year term, public subsidies; approximate amount of last loan; recent request for a loan less than 25000 €; needs to be met by this loan; assessment of the difficulties to obtain a loan less than 25000 € compared to other forms of company’s financing; most important elements to resort a loan less than 25000 €: lower interest rates, simpler procedures for granting loans, less demanding on guarantee requirements, shorter delays for granting loans; assessment of the current financing of the company as sufficient; institutions contacted to obtain financing: banks, public institutions, private financing companies, leasing or renting companies, venture capital companies, private investors; expectations regarding the increase of the company’s capital within the next years; measures to increase the company’s capital: opening-up capital to private individual investors or to venture capital companies, management buy-out, going on the stock exchange, opening-up capital to the company’s employees; assessment of the access to bank loans as easy; assessment of the development of the impediments to access bank loans compared to a few years ago; reasons that impede obtaining a bank loan compared to a few years ago: interest rates are too high, banks request too much information, loan granting procedures are too long, administrative side of the loan application is very demanding; approval of the following statements: loan is needed to conclude projects, unsuitable offers from banks, risk-averseness of banks, banker understands specifics of the company’s sector, banker sufficiently supports the company in terms of its financing; assessment how the company’s needs regarding financial management are met internally; preferred sources of information on financing.

Demography: position of respondent at the company; number of employees; company size; development of the number of employees in the last year; main activity of the company; company sector; year of company establishment; years of company activity; shareholding of the company; turnover of the company in the own country in the last fiscal year.

Additionally coded was: respondent ID; language of the interview; date of interview; duration of the interview; weighting factor.