About 25% of all German companies are open to the idea of raising private equity capital. This is the finding of the Unternehmensbarometer survey by the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK). In particular company founders and newly founded companies are often denied bank loans. »Therefore, a remarkable 35% of these consider private equity to be an important financing alternative«, is the reason given by Mr. Martin Wansleben, chief executive officer at the DIHK.
However, according to Mr. Wansleben, there is no danger of a sell-out by financial holding companies of German medium-sized businesses. In the course of the DIHK survey 46% of companies questioned said to dispose of sufficient capital for investment. 15% in principle rejected financial investors. In particular industrial companies consider it unnecessary to involve external financing and 80% rule out private equity which gives financiers a right to a say.
In the opinion of the DIHK, given the open-mindedness of company founders to private equity capital, the government should facilitate the involvement of external financiers. Says Wansleben: »The planned cancellation of carry-over losses in the context of the company tax reform would be couterproductive in this respect, given that this would reduce the interest of investors to the particular disadvantage of technology-based start-ups.»
The findings of the DIHK study on private equity are available online. 