With the start of the disbursement of the Recovery Fund for investment financing to be imminent, the demand is the successful use of the opportunity presented for the transformation of the Greek economy.
The SME sector is required to play a central role in this effort, in which several actions of the “Greece 2.0” project are expected to be upgraded.
Recognizing the importance of the above, the Financial Analysis Division of the National Bank, utilizing the findings of the semi-annual field research in a sample of 600 SMEs, launches a new series of regular studies aimed at capturing the sector’s willingness to utilize funds available through the Fund. .
Encouraging are the results of the first issue which reflects the successful outcome of the SME information initiatives on the Recovery Fund, but at the same time highlights the importance of companies and support agencies to move to the next (and most demanding) stage of the process, namely the preparation of viable investments. plans.
The main finding of the analysis is the increase of the percentage of the sector that has been informed about the actions of the Fund, which now amounts to ¾ of SMEs (from 2/3 last July). Even more important is the fact that the information seems to have paid off, as almost το the SME sector has now mobilized and is willing to participate – a rather high percentage, given that this is a purely investment program and we are considering a relatively conservative part of Greek entrepreneurship. . At this point, it is worth noting that mobilization is relatively evenly distributed among business sizes, so the funds available are estimated to develop momentum to benefit the entire SME sector.
By mobilizing the sector to satisfactory levels, the goal now is for companies to move on to the next (and more demanding) part of the journey – that is, to get on the road to implementing their plans. Indicative of the challenges for SMEs at this stage is the finding that 1/2 of mobilized SMEs still seem to be gathering information on Recovery Fund processes, while only 1/5 of SMEs have an investment plan in a relatively mature stage of preparation (ie , projects with high probability of implementation). Translating the current investment mood of SMEs into capital terms, potential investments are estimated to reach € 14 billion – a level that is considered satisfactory as it corresponds to just over 40% of the total private investment expected to be mobilized by the Recovery Fund (ie , a share corresponding to the contribution of SMEs to the sales of the business sector).
However, given the maturity of the projects, investments of € 4 billion (corresponding to completed or ongoing investment projects) are more likely to be made, highlighting the emphasis that must now be placed on substantial preparation by companies to positive disposition to proceed with practical implementation. Regarding the characteristics of the investment plans, we note that the majority of them concern digitization or enlargement, without however missing the interest for the whole range of actions of the Fund (such as green growth and extroversion).
Finally, as there is great interest in the willingness and ability of micro-enterprises to participate in the Recovery Fund’s actions, the conclusions of the EIB’s research on this part of SMEs need special mention. In particular, their willingness, dynamism and good strategic targeting are encouraging, planning investments that reach an average of 30% of their turnover (compared to 22% for medium-sized ones), while focusing on their weak element through targeted investments. to increase the size organically (36% of the preferences) or through partnerships (25% of the preferences). However, the problem is that they lag behind in terms of the readiness of their plans, as only το of the investment plans of very small companies are relatively mature (compared to 39% of medium-sized ones) and therefore have a high probability of implementation.
In summary, with the information bet having been won, the activation and support of SMEs for the preparation of their investment plans seems to judge the success of “Greece 2.0” – the success of contributing to making Greek SMEs more productive and to be able to join international value chains.
The Conventional Survey of Small and Medium Enterprises can be found in the section E.Spot Sector Analyzes (online magazine of the National Bank).
Source: Capital
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