Flash Eurobarometer 271 (Access to Finance)

Access to finance of small and medium enterprises.<br>Topics: most important problem of the company; introduction (in the last twelve months) of new or significantly improved: products or services, production processes, organisational methods, marketing strategies; development of the following indicators in the last six months: turnover, labour cost, other cost, net interest expenses, profit, mark up; development of the amount of debt compared to the assets in the last six months; use of selected sources of financing in the last six months: internal funds, grants from public sources, bank or credit cards overdraft, bank loan, trade credit, other loan, leasing, issue of debt securities, subordinated loans, equity issuance, other; development of the need for the following types of external financing in the last six months: bank loans, trade credit, equity investment, issue of debt securities, other; impact of selected issues on the company’s need for external financing in the last six months: fixed investment, inventories and working capital, internal funds, corporate restructuring; application for selected sources of external financing in the last six months: bank loan, trade credit, other; success of the application for the aforementioned means of financing: received all financing requested, received only part of the financing requested, refused because of too high cost, refusal of application; development of the availability of the following means of financing for the own company over the last six months: bank loans, trade credit, equity investments, issue of debt securities, other; development of selected issues regarding terms and conditions of bank financing: level of interest rates, level of other cost, available size of loan or credit line, available loan maturity, collateral requirements, other; development of the following factors over the last six months: general economic outlook, access to public financial support, company-specific outlook, company’s capital, company’s credit history, willingness of banks to provide loans, willingness of business partners to provide trade credits, willingness of investors to invest in equity or debt securities issued by the company; size of last loan; provider of last loan; purpose of the loan; development of turnover in the last three years; expected development of turnover in the next three years; confidence to obtain desired results with regard to financing from: banks, equity investors; preferred type of external financing; aimed amount of financing; most important limiting factor with regard to financing; expected development of selected types of financing over the next six months: internal funds, bank loans, equity investments, trade credit, issue of debt securities, other; aims to be listed on a stock market within the next two years; main obstacles to be listed on a stock market.

Demography: information about the company: number of employees, company size, kind of enterprise, main activity of the company, company sector, year of company registration, ownership structure; turnover of the company in the own country in 2008.

Additionally coded was: respondent ID; country; NACE-Code; weighting factor.