Small and medium-sized high-tech entities meet with better conditions for business financing this year. This is demonstrated by a new survey conducted by the KfW-Bankengruppe and the German Association for Information Management, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM). 20% of small and medium-sized high tech companies said that access to loans had become easier while last year only 13% thought so. 59% answered that the situation had not changed, while 20% said that it had become more difficult to take out a loan.
In particular very small companies report about difficulties with regard to taking out a loan. One quarter of small and medium-sized entities from the high tech sector with less than one million Euros turnover consider stricter requirements with regard to collateral and documentation to be the reason for this. According to BITKOM, the situation with regard to collateral is particularly difficult for start-up companies. On the other hand, well-established mall and medium-sized entities often shy away from presenting financial figures to their banks. Almost half of all companies said in the survey that they did not know the rating criteria of banks.Without substantiated balance sheet information, however, today it is hardly possible to obtain a loan, says BITKOM´s vice president, Mr. Heinz Paul Bonn.
Particularly positive is another finding of the survey: the equity ratio of small and medium-sized entities from the high tech sector amounts to 37% on average which is 5% more than in 2006.
The survey is available for download from the internet. 