| Opis: | Small enterprises in Slovenia (together with micro and medium-sized enterprises, abbreviated SME) in financing largely depend of bank credits, and have a limited access to this kind of financing.
Small enterprises in Slovenia, sharing characteristics and destiny of micro and medium-sized enterprises, and are due to the available data in the master's thesis often considered together, are very important part of the Slovenian economy since they represent 99.7% of all enterprises in Slovenia. However, these enterprises are also among the most heavily indebted, mostly financed by bank credits.
In the time prior the economic crisis outburst, Slovenia was facing credit expansion which accompanied the process of rapid economic growth. Therefore, at the outburst of financial and economic crisis, the banks in Slovenia were heavily indebted in the wholesale market, and the Slovenian enterprises, especially SME, were indebted in banks. In 2008, the ratio among debt and equity source of financing of the enterprises was very high; financial leverage was high due to inadequate development policies. By deleveraging of the enterprises by banks, the financial leverage decreased, but it remained among the highest in EU in the period from 2011 to 2013. Deleveraging of the enterprises through decreased investments of the enterprises slows economic growth, and on the other hand a decrease of economic activity contributes its share to lower demands for credits. In the same time, it is harder for banks to access the financial resources in international financial markets (due to the worse capital adequacy), which forces banks to reduce lending. Besides the reduction in demands for credits, in the examined period the state of the existing credits of SME lowered, interest rates for given credits of SME also lowered, but they were still higher than the average interest rates in EU all the time.
The degree of the exceeded demand, reflecting problems in obtaining financial resources, was increasing in the examined period in Slovenia. In 2013, the demand exceeded the supply for more than 34%. In the period from 2011 to 2013, only the demand of SME for credits for restructuring was increasing. That was a reflection of problems for debt repayment. The most common reasons for rejecting the credits, banks stated poor credit standing of clients, and clients' disagreements with the conditions for financing. But the fact is that prior the rehabilitation in 2013, banks did not have enough resources for financing, and the enterprises were heavily indebted. The heavy indebtedness of the Slovenian enterprises is especially a consequence of low capital in the enterprises.
A net financial gap, representing a mismatch among the supply and demand, was in the examined period increasing for all sources of financing, especially for bank credits. All the stated undoubtedly represents problems and limitations in access to bank financing of SME in Slovenia in the period from 2011 to 2013. Access to sources of financing is, according to surveys of Bank of Slovenia which are carried out every year among the SME, the key element that slows down the operation of the enterprises in the mentioned period.
In the master's thesis we also compare the accessibility of bank resources for SME in Slovenia and EU. In 2013, also in EU every third company did not receive adequate funding, although bank credit and overdraft on account are the most commonly used resources of financing of small (also wider SME) enterprises in EU. However, worsening of accessibility of these resources in average in EU is not as distinct as in Slovenia. SMAF index is monitoring accessibility of SME to financial resources. In EU in average in the examined period, the SMAF index is increasing, but there are considerable differences among the countries. In EU small and younger enterprises also face bigger problems in accessing bank finical resources, which especially restricts them due to their characteristics. |
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